New Blood
by Calamity Heart
Summary: Class is back in session. Shinobi students gather once more to hone their skills and begin their walk along the Path, and the fresh-faced first-years of Hanzō and Hebijo already show glowing potential in the eyes of their senior peers. But when those senior peers begin to mysteriously vanish, it falls upon the first-years to track them down.
1. New Semester Pt 1

**A/N: This is something new that I've been thinking about for some time. Had a bit of a creative slump recently, but I'm back and ready to try to once again put out quality writing that I enjoy creating and you enjoy reading.**

 **A quick word, Shinovi Versus, and to a lesser extent, Estival Versus are the only SK games that I'm personally familiar with. I've not played either of the first two stories or watched the anime, but I'm aware of what they're about, and as much as I'd like to play New Wave, and I'm sure there's some way I could, I really don't want to go through that hassle. So most of what I write about the New Wave characters are played by ear. If there's established canon regarding their behavior that I don't really touch upon correctly, I'm sorry in advance.**

 **Enjoy the first chapter.**

* * *

 _Class is back in session. Shinobi students gather once more to hone their skills and begin their walk along the Path, and the fresh-faced first-years of Hanzō and Hebijo already show glowing potential in the eyes of their senior peers. But when those senior peers begin to mysteriously vanish, it falls upon the first-years to track them down._

* * *

~*~ _Hanzō Academy_ ~*~

The Asakusa skyline glowed dim with the approaching sunrise, and a crisp early morning autumn wind whistled across the rooftops of Hanzō National Academy and the surrounding buildings. Two groups of five young women stood silently, facing each other with their grey-haired instructor standing between them with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed.

On one end were the upperclassmen shinobi, Asuka, Hibari, and Yagyū, wearing the Hanzō uniform, along with two of the most recent Hanzō graduates, Ikaruga, clad in a long-sleeved white shirt with a black vest and skirt, tights, and boots, and Katsuragi, who wore an open blue jacket over a simple white bra, a blue miniskirt, and her signature greaves.

On the other end stood the Hanzō first-years, excitable orange-haired Fuma, stern-faced brunette Hijikata, mellow ebon-haired Ayame, bleary-eyed, blue-haired Seimei, and blonde android Muramasa, all wearing the typical Hanzō uniform as well.

"Your first lesson this year will not be a lecture," Kiriya started. "It will be an exercise. I know from experience that some students tend not to respond well to being _talked_ at in the first few days, or even throughout the year, for that matter."

At this, Kiriya turned his head and opened one eye to give a pointed look to Asuka, standing in the center of her group. The dark-haired third-year simply grinned and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head before Kiriya closed his eye again and resumed speaking.

"This will be a five-on-five capture-the-flag exercise, between the underclassmen Team Red and the upperclassmen-graduate Team Green. Your objective is simple: steal your opponent's flag from their base and bring it back to your own base. If your flag has been stolen, you cannot return to your base without it. The team who claims ownership of both flags wins. Any questions?"

From Team Red, Seimei slowly raised her hand, and Kiriya glanced in her direction.

"Kiriya-sensei… I'm curious, why did we have to do this so early in the morning? I feel like I'm going to drop at any moment..." she said, her dull blue eyes blinking slowly as she leaned on her standing rocket launcher. Her question earned disapproving glances from both Hijikata and Yagyū, and a small laugh from Fuma. Kiriya shook his head.

"Elite shinobi such as yourselves have to be ready to act at any moment, and answer the call for an important mission at any time of day. Your own schedule always comes second to your duties as a shinobi, and it's your responsibility to keep _yourself_ prepared for the unexpected," he lectured.

Seimei sighed and closed her eyes, and Fuma patted her firmly on the back with a smile, surprising the blue-haired girl into blinking her eyes open again. "Chin up, Seimei! Once the mission starts, I'm sure you'll find the energy to get it done!"

Seimei raised a brow at Fuma and responded to her encouragement with a small nod. Kiriya cleared his throat, and everyone's attention focused ahead again. "Keep in mind that the space within a shinobi barrier is somewhat different, _separate_ , from regular space. Any damage you do to your surroundings will be nullified once the barrier falls, so don't be afraid to go all out during this exercise, understand?"

"Understood!" All ten Hanzō students affirmed at once. Kiriya looked behind him at the eastern horizon.

"Now, get to your bases! The moment you see the sun's first light over the horizon, the exercise begins. Use that time to quickly plan your approach. Go!"

In a flash and a breeze, both teams vanished, sprinting quickly across the rooftops to their respective bases, leaving Kiriya alone. He looked back at the horizon for another long moment before leaping away himself, taking a steady stance atop Hanzō Academy's flagpole, where he could see the entire area and watch every one of his students' movements.

* * *

Within a minute, Team Red arrived at their base, where their banner rested in its stand, and no sooner than they arrived, Hijikata began ranting.

"You need to start taking this more seriously, Seimei. It was _obvious_ why Kiriya-sensei called us out so early for our first day. It seems to me like you were just whining," she said, placing her hands on her hips.

Seimei furrowed her brows and rubbed her eyes. "I am taking this seriously, Hijikata. I'm just…" Seimei paused for a moment, covering a long yawn with her hand, which only seemed to irritate Hijikata further. "…tired. All I'm saying is, if it's just a training exercise, maybe it'd be better to do this later this morning when I'm more awake, you know?"

Hijikata rolled her eyes, unconvinced. "Like it would've made a difference… You're _never_ more awake than you are now. Maybe a tap from my hammer is what you need to get your ass in gear!"

Seimei shouldered her rocket launcher with a frown. "Maybe a shot from my launcher is what you need to shut your ass up…"

Sensing the escalating tension, the rest of Team Red leap into action, with Fuma trying to get Seimei to stand down by stepping into the sights of her launcher, and Muramasa and Ayame running to hold Hijikata back to keep her from approaching Seimei.

"Girls, girls, girls!" Fuma called out. "Come on, this shouldn't be how we start our first day as Hanzō elites! What would Kiriya-sensei think? Asuka and the others are gonna steamroll over us if we keep this up!"

Fuma's voice of reason convinced Hijikata to floor her hammer with a huff, and Seimei nodded, silently lowering her launcher and leaning on it again. With everyone calm now, Fuma sighed and punched her palm. "Alright! Now, we don't have much time, so let's start thinking up a strategy, yeah?"

Ayame put her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Do you really think we can win, Fuma? Kat and the others are the strongest girls we know. They might just steamroll right over us regardless of what we do."

Fuma gave Ayame a serious look. "I get what you're saying, Ayame. But if we're gonna get our asses kicked, I'd rather not just bend over and take it without a fight. Would Kat like that? I know Asuka wouldn't."

Ayame crossed her arms in thought, before she eventually shrugged. "Well, you've got a point there. What's the plan?"

Fuma glanced at the horizon. The sun was only a minute at most away from peeking over the hills and shining its first light on them. She tapped her chin before turning to point at Muramasa.

"Muramasa, directive!" she said, and the android responds with a quick turn and a robotic salute.

"Listening~!" her cheerful, synthesized voice answered.

"You and Seimei are going to stay here and defend our flag with your lives, got it? If they try to get close, Seimei, blast'em with your rockets! If they _do_ get close, Muramasa, punch'em with your big robo-fists!"

Seimei silently nodded, and Muramasa grinned brightly and held up two fingers. "Directive understood~! You can count on me, Fuma! The senpai-units will not have our flag! _Determined tone!_ "

Fuma smiled approvingly and turned to Ayame and Hijikata. "You two will be with me. Regardless of whatever comes our way, I'm going for the flag. Ayame, Hiji, you'll be our midfielders. If we meet them in the middle, you two should intercept them, slow them down however you can and give me time to nab their flag and hustle back. That cool?"

Hijikata crossed her arms. "I would much rather stay and help defend the flag, Fuma," she asserted, and Fuma put her hands on her hips.

"Well, Seimei is best left here, too. And you and Seimei aren't working too well together right now, so I'm only suggesting the next best option," Fuma said. "We can work out our issues as friends later. But right now, as shinobi, we need to do what's best for the mission, and I'm making the call I think is best."

Hijikata closed her eyes. "…Well said. I'm ready, then."

Fuma took another glance at the horizon with the squint, and the rest of Team Red followed suit, the tension building silently as the first light was only moments away from signaling the start of the exercise. Fuma raised her hand slowly, and the moment the glare of the sun's first light peeked over the hills, she lowered it quickly.

"Let's go!" she called out, before leaping away with Hijikata and Ayame behind her hopping from roof to roof toward Team Green's base. Seimei and Muramasa saw them off, and the moment they were out of sight, Seimei yawned and curled up against her rocket launcher.

"Muramasa, directive…"

"Listening~!"

"Wake me up when the enemy comes…"

"Directive understood~!"

* * *

Ayame flexed her fingers and tapped her gauntlets together idly as she tailed her teammates across the roofs at their decent pace. Hijikata had her massive mallet propped readily against her shoulder, and Fuma casually wound the chain connecting her fuma shuriken into a loop hold it and both linked weapons in one hand.

"I wonder what _their_ game plan is…" Fuma wondered idly, tapping her chin. "I made the calls I thought was right, but if they predicted what we'd decide, we might be in trouble."

Ayame laughs. "If I know them like I think I know them, Kat charged ahead to brute-force her way through us, and everyone except Asuka, who's compelled to stay near the flag, chased after her."

Hijikata raised her brows and scoffed. "Whatever would make you think that? I think strong Hanzō graduates like Katsuragi would have a little more restraint than to just recklessly cha-"

Mid-sentence, a blonde blur appeared from nowhere, flying in from the side and delivering a flying dragon kick right to Hijikata's chest. Time seemed to stop for a brief instant before Hijikata was launched right out of her uniform blouse, soaring into the wall of a nearby taller building.

Fuma and Ayame gasped and stopped immediately, looking back at the smoking crater in the wall that marked their friend's impact. "Hiji!" Fuma called out.

"Don't ever, _ever_ overestimate me!" Katsuragi yelled out as she landed on the edge of another nearby roof and puts her hands on her hips with a wide smile. "A friend once told me that being stupid is my greatest advantage as a shinobi. Now you know why!"

While Fuma and Ayame listened, Ikaruga suddenly appeared between them, her hand poised to draw her blade.

"Stay focused!" she said simply, and both Fuma and Ayame raised their weapons and leaped away in opposite directions to guard her attack. Ikaruga drew and swung Hien in a wide arc. It seemed to the naked eye that she had only swung once, but the multiple clashes of impact against their weapons and the unusual force that pushed them back further betrayed the myriad of swings Ikaruga took that were simply too fast to comprehend.

Ikaruga turned her attention to Ayame and turned her back on Fuma, advancing slowly but aggressively with her swings, sheathing Hien after each blow, only to draw it again immediately afterward for another attack, a signature habit of hers.

Fuma briefly forgot her own plan. Seeing Ikaruga with her back turned reminded Fuma of one of the basic rules of shinobi combat, and unwilling to relinquish this advantage, she readied her weapons preparing to toss one of her shuriken at Ikaruga's unprotected rear. Her senses tingled just before she threw, the hairs rising on the back of her neck, and she changed gears in a split second, turning and ducking underneath the flying hip check coming at her face, courtesy of Hibari, and then leaping away as a barrage of chilly globs of ink rained down on her location, courtesy of Yagyū.

"You're fast, Fuma! Isn't she, Ninto? I thought we had her for sure!" Hibari giggled and the ninja rabbit sitting on her back nodded affirmatively.

"Hibari, go for the flag. I'll be right behind you," Yagyū ordered, and Hibari nodded and leaped away to obey. As Yagyū turned back to Fuma, she ducked and dodged under the first long-range chained swings of Fuma's shuriken, before casually blocking the next two swings with her folded umbrella.

"Predictable. This isn't a game, you never use the same move twice in a row," Yagyū criticized her, before unfolding her umbrella and extending its blades.

"Fuma!" Hijikata's voice called from a distance. She dragged herself out of the hole in the wall she'd created and fell onto a lower roof, taking a knee. Sans a blouse, her frilly white-and-blue front-tied bra was all she wore above the waist now. "Remember your own plan, Fuma! We'll take care of this, get the flag!"

Fuma looked back at Yagyū, who had quickly lost interest in her and went to chase after Hibari. She gulped, before nodding. "G-Got it! I won't let you all down!"

Fuma turned away and continue advancing forward quickly and steadily across the roofs, speaking aloud to herself as she went.

"Ayame was right… All of them except Asuka _did_ rush us down. But that just means you'll have your biggest fan all to yourself, Asuka~!" she said with a grin, picking up the pace excitedly.

* * *

While Seimei slept soundly against her launched beside the flag, Muramasa took point up above, balancing on top of the flag and watching for approaching enemies. The calm and silence didn't last for long, Muramasa gasped as she identified two incoming targets. "Owner Hibari and senpai-unit Yagyū~! Seimei, wake up! The enemy approaches!"

She leapt down and shook Seimei who groaned. "Five more minutes…"

Muramasa pouted. " _Frown…_ That would go against the directive you gave me, Seimei! The enemy has come, so wake up! _Stern gaze…_ "

Reluctantly, Seimei pulled herself out of dreamland and up to her feet. "Nnnngh… I guess I don't have a choice. Let's beat them quickly so I can…" Another pause for another long yawn. "…get back to sleep."

She shouldered her rocket launcher, aimed in the general direction Muramasa pointed, and fired four seeking rockets into the air which spiraled about in the air before diving to home in on Hibari and Yagyū one at a time.

"Just as we thought, it must be them," Yagyū said, quickly dodging the explosive blast of one rocket before launching an inky bolt from her umbrella to intercept and detonate the second rocket that had followed her dodge.

"Ninto!" Hibari called, and the ninja rabbit jumped off her back and conjured a cloud, which Hibari leaped onto the back of, speeding ahead and dodging both rockets with ease before zipping onto the roof where Seimei and Muramasa were waiting for them. Yagyū joined her, giving Seimei a look.

"If you actually tried to apply yourself, Seimei, perhaps you would've come close to hitting us with those rockets. Why do you insist on not taking this seriously?"

Seimei simply sighed. "Not you too, Yagyū… Hiji already nagged me about this. Hearing it again will just put me to sleep. …On second thought, I wouldn't mind you nagging me about it."

"Owner Hibari~! I estimated a 42% chance that you would be the one to come steal our flag. _Excited expression!"_ Muramasa giggled, hopping on the balls of her feet.

Hibari smiled warmly at Muramasa. "I'm happy that you're here defending it, Muramasa. Directive!"

As per usual, the blonde android saluted attentively. "Listening~!"

Hibari's smile turned into a ready smirk as she took her stance. "I want you to fight me with everything you've got. Try to kill me, alright, Muramasa?"

Yagyū and Muramasa both look at Hibari with surprise, and Muramasa furrows her brows. " _U-Unprecedented hesitation…_ " she murmurs, not immediately affirming a directive for the first time since her activation.

Hibari furrows her brows and tilts her head. "C'mon, Muramasa, I want to see you fight at 100% power! That would make me happy!"

" _Possible compromise!_ This unit will fight at 100% power _without_ trying to kill Owner Hibari. _Hopeful pause?"_

Hibari seemed sad. "That's not what 100% means, Muramasa... After training today, I'll buy you your favorite fuel, as much as you can drink, but only if you fight me with everything you've got."

Muramasa's body fidgeted uncomfortably at the sorrow on Hibari's face. " _Frustration…_ A-Alright, Owner Hibari! Directive understood~! I will… a-attempt to terminate you!"

Smiling again, Hibari once again readied herself. "That's more like it. You're strong, Muramasa, now show me!" She ran forward, and Yagyū called after her.

"Hibari! Do you know what you're doing?"

She frowned ahead at Muramasa, before turning her head, eyebrows rising with surprise as Seimei approached swiftly.

"Don't forget about me…" she muttered in her ever-sleepy voice as she demonstrated the massive strength behind her tired exterior and took a swing with the bulk of her rocket launcher, which she'd unwrapped her sleeping mat from. Yagyū raised her folded umbrella to block the blow, but was still sent flying across the roof, skidding on her heels to a stop.

"So you _can_ take things seriously,"

Seimei shrugged. "Of course I can. I just prefer to sleep. What's so bad about that?" she asked, shouldering her launcher again and taking aim. "But there's too many voices around for me to get back to sleep, so I don't really have a choice but to blow you away first and bring back the peace and quiet…"

Seimei pulled the trigger and fired another salvo of rockets, while Yagyū swung her umbrella and unleashed another wave of ink bolts to detonate them all in a massive explosion. Meanwhile, nearby, Hibari and Muramasa began to clash, the android trading quick punches with Hibari's wild, unorthodox attacks, It was difficult for Muramasa to read her owner's movements, and her inaccuracy earned her several punches and elbows as she was forced back toward the flag.

"Muramasa, you're not fighting at 100% like you promised!"

" _Snappy retort!_ Neither are you, Owner Hibari!"

A stray missile lands near them and fills the area with smoke. Muramasa stumbled through the smoke, her optics working on overdrive to try to see through the haze, her cat ears opened, trying to pick up any soundwaves she could. Hibari had stopped moving. Suddenly, a voice called out.

"Shinobi… TENSHIN!"

A pink flash shined into Muramasa's optics, but before she could recover, she was met with a solid fist to the face, hard enough to make her head snap back and one of her eyes fade to static for a brief moment. As Muramasa staggered back, Hibari, now in her signature pink jacket and navy blue gym shorts, pressed the assault and began a relentless, more focused barrage of not only punches and kicks, but swings of her hips and chest to batter Muramasa with her bountiful butt and bosom as well. Every attempt by Muramasa to block was met with a strike from somewhere else, and as she was beaten back, it didn't take long for the stressful force of Hibari's assault to rip away at Muramasa's uniform and reveal the leopard-print bandeau and panties she wore beneath.

To finish her attack, Hibari stepped forward and threw an elbow into the back of Muramasa's head, causing her to stagger and fall to one knee. Hibari kicked Muramasa's leg out from under her to cause her to fall flat on her stomach, before finally leaping into the air and dropping down butt-first onto Muramasa's back, crushing her deeper into the roof.

"Muramasa…" Hibari murmured sadly as she got up, furrowing her brows as she got up and saw that she'd stopped moving. "I thought your prime directive was to make me happy."

Muramasa's fingers twitched, before she clenched them into a fist. Her eyes glowed as she pulled herself to her feet and a compartment opened in her left upper thigh, revealing her Secret Ninja Art Scroll, which she clutched in her hand and held up high.

" _Shinobi TENSHIN!_ "

A yellow glow surrounded Muramasa as her underwear vaporized, quickly replaced by a blue one-piece suit with white and silver accents. In addition, her regular arms begin to unfold and rapidly transform into much larger bronze-colored metal fists that were just as large as Muramasa herself.

Muramasa's tone had become monotonously robotic as she spoke. "Energy output approaching 100%. Directive reaffirmed: terminate Owner Hibari."

Her sudden change in tone unnerved Hibari slightly, but her new resolve made her smile as well. "That's what I'm talking about, Muramasa~! Let's go!"

Once again, the two of them ran toward each other, their fists cocked back to strike their hardest…

 **And with that, the first chapter ends. Chapter 2 will be a continuation of this scene, up to the conclusion of the exercise, and Chapter 3 will introduce the Hebijo girls and what they're up to.**

 **Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know if you did.**

 **~M.H.C~**


	2. New Semester Pt 2

**Sorry about that long pause between chapters. Been pretty busy, and I lost all of my progress at one point. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take quite as long.**

 **Don't be afraid to review, even if it's only a couple words. You have no idea what a couple of words can mean for a writer. I'd like to know what people are thinking about what they're reading so far.**

 **Enjoy chapter 2. The first chapter was a lot of fun for me to write, and I can tell that this will be the same.**

* * *

The midfield battle between the first-years and the graduates quickly came to a dangerous standoff. Ikaruga's relentless assault led Ayame onto the same roof where Hijikata was fending off Katsuragi as best as she could. The first-years found themselves back-to-back, both stripped of their blouses from their skirmishes, their opponents on either side of them.

"Well, this isn't cool… But I guess it isn't all bad; your back is _super_ warm, Hiji~" Ayame chuckled. Hijikata responded with a firm elbow in the side.

"G-Get it together, Ayame... We have to hold this position for as long as possible!" she reminded her, though she seemed just as tired as Ayame, both already panting and sweating.

Ikaruga sheathed Hien and gave the two of them a cool searching gaze, tilting her head. "We came back to Hanzō hoping we had left it in good hands. You all are starting to make me a little bit worried about that…" she said. "Tell me… Do you truly believe you're ready to take our places as the elites of this school?"

Ayame and Hijikata didn't answer, and Katsuragi just scoffed and stuck her tongue out with a limp wave of the wrist. "Pfft. C'mon, Ikaruga, don't take this so seriously!" she said, a catty, perverted grin lighting up her face as she raised her hands to grope teasingly at the air. "We can play with their _supple_ little bodies all morning if we want to~ The others can't be having too much trouble if we aren't, right?"

Hijikata and Ayame looked at each other for a long moment before they nodded, and as one, quickly sidestepped and moved past each other to leap at each other's opponent with their weapons raised to attack. Katsuragi quickly blocked Ayame's incoming roundhouse kick with one of her own, their greaves banging loudly against each other with jarring force, while Ikaruga was forced to quickly leap away and respect the unstoppable force of Hijikata's giant mallet, which she slammed into the floor of the roof to produce a shattering shockwave of force.

"Oho~! Now you're fired up! What happened?" Katsuragi asked with a grin.

Ayame returned a similar grin. "Heh… I just wanted to let Ikaruga get me all sweaty and shiny for you, Kat~ Now we can _really_ have some fun!"

Both Ayame and Katsuragi leaped away and took ready stances. "You know just what I like to hear~ Well, c'mon, Ayame, show me what those pretty legs can do!"

Nearby, Hijikata shouldered her mallet and gave Ikaruga a steely, determined expression "I might not be strong enough to defeat you, Ikaruga, but with my Iron Will, I'll hold you off with everything I have, and I'll show you that I'm more than ready to take your place as Hanzō's strongest defender."

Ikaruga readied her blade. "It would concern me if criticism is what brings out the best in you. A real opponent will not stand by and mock you when you are disadvantaged and killable." Her look softened momentarily. "Still, I'm happy with this development. Show me what your years of preparation in middle school have done for you. Show me why you're an elite!"

Their determination now set in stone, Ayame and Hijikata shed the rest of their clothes in a vaporizing light, Ayame's ninja scroll falling into her hand from between her breasts, and Hijikata pulling hers from behind her back.

"Shinobi _TENSHIN!_ " they called out, and donned their shinobi turnover uniforms, Ayame wearing a less-buttoned blouse with a loose red tie instead of the Hanzō standard black and a loose, flowy red pleated skirt, while Hijikata wore a knight-like suit of armor, the metal plating was arranged in such a way to retain most of her mobility while also giving her body as much protection as possible.

Katsuragi and Ikaruga remained as they were, and prepared themselves to fight once again.

Hijikata closed in quickly and swung her mallet with more speed and control than Ikaruga was expecting out of such a large and unwieldly-looking weapon. Now she was on the other end of the treatment she gave Ayame moments before, forced to constantly back away to avoid being even grazed by Hijikata's tireless, relentless assault.

"HYAAH!" Hijikata yelled as she smashed her mallet down onto the roof again, producing a shockwave of force that Ikaruga could not leap back far enough to avoid, sending her flying backwards as a result.

Ikaruga elegantly spun through the air and struck a nearby building feet-first, grunting as she leaped back to stand on the edge of the rooftop, the sleeve of her outfit frayed and torn. Hijikata narrowed her eyes when she saw that Ikaruga had not escaped her unscathed, raising her hammer and pointing it toward the graduate.

"Ikaruga… You're powerful, there's no doubt about it. But if this is all you're willing to throw at me, I will have no trouble holding you off!" she declared, then set her hammer down and set one plated fist against her chest. "Let me prove that I'm strong enough to take your place, Ikaruga! Allow me to endure you at your full strength!"

Ikaruga gazed deeply into Hijikata's eyes for a long moment, firmly assessing her, judging the fire and iron in her eyes. The graduate closed her own eyes after a moment, smiling. "Very well, Hijikata. Prepare yourself, for I'll hold nothing back!" Ikaruga's clothing vanished amidst a nova of bright blue light, and she retrieved her ninja scroll from under her right arm. "Shinobi _Tenshin!"_

The light surrounded Ikaruga, and a new outfit took the place of the one she'd discarded. A white suit, skirt, and boots, with golden trim and black tights, completed with a red class representative armband on her left arm, a holdover from her time at Hanzō.

"Let us begin." Ikaruga shared a smile with Hijikata before both adopted steely, serious expressions and leapt toward each other at once, their weapons raised to swing.

* * *

 _Meanwhile,_ on the roof across from Hijikata and Ikaruga, Ayame and Katsuragi were locked in their own fast-paced, evenly-matched melee. Ayame read and mirrored Katsuragi's movements and attacks nearly perfectly. They dodged and weaved and spun around each other as if they were dancing and not actively trying to kick each other's lights out. Several times, their greaves would clash in the air, and it was in these brief moments that they would speak.

"How long are we going to keep it up like this, Ayame? I know this isn't all you got!" Katsuragi twisted her hips and leveraged her greave with more force against Ayame's forcing both girls to twirl away from each other.

Ayame smirked before she lunged forward on the offensive, stepping forward with one foot and twirling to attempt a vicious roundhouse. Katsuragi ducked to avoid it, but Ayame twirled on the heel she stood on to attempt a second roundhouse, which Katsuragi quickly countered with another roundhouse of her own, creating another harsh clang that shook the air, and locking them in place for another few moments.

"For as long as you want, Kat… Weren't you the one who wanted to play with my supple little body all day~? It's right here for you, if you can get it!" Ayame stuck her tongue out before she dropped her leg and leaped back, setting her hands on her hips.

Katsuragi squinted as she returned to a neutral stance. "Oho, getting a little confident? Careful now, sticking your chest out just makes it easier for me to kick in!" As recklessly as ever, she rushed forward and leapt toward Ayame to attempt a flying side kick.

Ayame grinned. "Like I said…" Just before Katsuragi's attack connected, Ayame seemed to vanish from sight, leaving only a small gust of wind in her wake and leaving Katsuragi to kick at empty air. She staggered in confusion and looked around for where Ayame could have gone, but went tense at a voice that spoke behind her.

"Gotta catch me before you can kick me!"

Katsuragi grunted and twisted her body for a swift reverse roundhouse behind her, but ended up stirring the wind with another kick at empty air. Just before she could return to a neutral position to put up her guard again, a swift strike from seemingly nowhere struck her hard right on the common peroneal nerve in her grounded leg.

Katsuragi's leg went numb and she crumpled almost immediately, collapsing onto her knee before she could fully drop her other foot. Her guard could not have been any lower, and before Katsuragi even had a chance to right herself, Ayame reappeared again in front of her, her fist cocked back, and she unleashed a powerful angled hook punch to Katsuragi's unguarded chin.

The blow rattled the graduate greatly, and she flew backwards, rolling across the ground before instinct kicked in and she spun herself back to her feet. Katsuragi's leg was still numb and shaky from the nerve blow, and Ayame was relentless, closing the distance between them in an instant. Too slow to right herself in time, Katsuragi left herself open for a barrage of standing side kicks from Ayame, before she finished with a brutal straight punch directly to the chest, launching Katsuragi right out of the back of her jacket and into a nearby building, busting a Kat-shaped hole in the wall.

Ayame let out a sigh and fell to her knees, winded from the effort it took to take on Katsuragi the way she did. "Well… that takes care of Kat. I should go see if I can help Hiji!"

Ayame pulled herself to her feet and looked over toward the adjacent roof, but all she could make out from the vicious melee between Hijikata and Ikaruga was the bright blue slashes of Hien and the forceful, wind-stirring impacts of Hijikata's swinging mallet. Ayame deadpanned and rubbed the back of her head.

"Aha… It looks like things are cool over there, I shouldn't interrupt. Maybe I can go help out Fuma with that flag instead."

Ayame turned, ready to leap away to chase after Fuma, but a bright green flash of light from behind her caused her to stop and turn. Katsuragi burst from the hole in the building she'd been launched through, leaping high into the air and flipping forward once before extending her leg and falling fast toward the roof, aiming a falling axe kick directly on top of Ayame.

The ebon-haired first-year's face paled and she sprinted to leap off the roof as quickly as she could just as Katsuragi came in for the impact. Her heel struck the rooftop with the force of a meteor, buckling and shattering the stone, causing the roof to cave in and a large pillar of smoke and dust to rise into the air.

Ayame landed on another nearby roof with higher ground, gulping at Katsuragi's raw power and the sheer destruction that one kick caused. She leaped further back when Katsuragi appeared on the edge of the rooftop she had relocated to. Katsuragi had turned over, now wearing her shinobi uniform, like Ayame's, only completely unbuttoned to reveal the vast valley of her cleavage, and blue in place of Ayame's red.

"Not bad, Ayame. Not bad at all. I'll admit, you're faster than I am." Katsuragi grinned and thumped her fist hard against her bare stomach. "But I'm tougher. I can take your punches and kicks all day long, but I can't hit you. It's a matter of who gets tired first. And from what I'm seeing now, that's a match I can win."

Ayame sweated, furrowing her brows. _'She's right… But it's not my job to win.'_ Ayame glanced behind her, toward where Fuma had run off. _'C'mon, Fuma… Hurry up and get that flag.'_

Ayame looked ahead again just in time to gasp and duck under a powerful incoming kick, leaping back and taking a stance, preparing to engage Katsuragi again for as long as she could last.

* * *

Sitting alone against the Green Team flag with her legs crossed and her head propped in her hands, Asuka looked up into the air, her ears wiggling at the rapid popping of distant explosions. She squinted as smoke rose far in the distance.

"Looks like Yagyū found Seimei…" Asuka sighed, going silent again until just a few minutes later, when she felt a rumble and a gust of wind as another loud blast went off and smoke and dust rose into the air from somewhere closer.

"And it sounds like Kat's having fun… Hnnngh! It's not fair!" Asuka whined, crossing her arms. "I had everything planned out, too… I just hope they all know not to go too rough on the first-years. Sure, they aren't supposed to win, but blowing them away outright wouldn't teach them anyth-"

Asuka was suddenly stirred from her vocal musings by the sound of something whizzing through the air toward her. She snapped to attention immediately, looking up and shooting her hand forward to catch whatever it was that was aimed at her, and ended up wrapping her fingers around the grip within the ring of a familiar fuma shuriken. Before Asuka could fully process what was happening, she was suddenly yanked into the air by the shuriken's chain, wailing out as she was whirled through the air in a fast, wide arc, before being flung straight back down onto the roof face-first, slightly embedded in a small crater.

Her grip faltered on the shuriken, and its chain was tugged back into the hand of its wielder, Fuma, who was positioned on a higher point of the roof. She grinned cheekily. "Aren't supposed to win, huh? We may be first-years, Asuka, but don't write us off right away!"

Asuka was motionless, and the longer she remained that way, the more Fuma's smile faltered, before she suddenly yelled out in panic.

"Waaah! Oh no, did I overdo it?! Asuka, I'm sorry! Stay with me, please!"

In a flailing, teary-eyed panic, Fuma jumped down from her perch and ran up to Asuka, desperately trying to shake her awake.

"Breathe, Asuka! Breathe! I'll follow you into the afterlife if I have to!"

'Miraculously', Asuka rose suddenly, and with Fuma's guard completely down, delivering a swift elbow to the face to send her flying backwards was an effortless move. Fuma grunted as she hit the ground, and groaned as she rubbed her face, a bit slow getting up.

Asuka crossed her arms and frowned, having sustained little if any damage to her clothing other than a few streaks of dirt. "Come on, Fuma… All I had to do was stay still, and you were in the palm of my hand. You didn't _actually_ think that attack hurt me that much, did you? While I was down, you could've easily ran for the flag. That would've actually impressed me."

Fuma shook her head, both to deny Asuka's assessments and to clear the stars from her vision. "No, no, I just… Old habits die hard, y'know? And besides, you know it's only _you_ that I'd worry over that much! I wouldn't dote on an _enemy_ I just smashed into the ground."

Asuka sighed, unsheathing her wakizashi. "Right now, Fuma, we _are_ enemies. So now, if you want my flag, you need to treat me like one and fight me like you're on a life-or-death mission!"

Fuma gulped, glancing for a moment at Team Green's flag. _'This is my chance… I seriously have to prove myself to Asuka right now! I won't mess up again… Hold on tight just a little bit longer, guys. I'll have this flag back to our base lickity-split!'_

Fuma and Asuka stared each other down for only a few moments before Fuma made the first move, throwing her arm forward and flinging one of her chained shuriken directly at Asuka, the chain rattling threateningly as the bladed weapon wheeled its way through the air.

Asuka sidestepped the projectile with a brisk motion and raced forward with her blades raised, but the moment Fuma saw that she missed her mark, she tugged hard on the chain and the shuriken snapped back, quickly changing course and flying toward Asuka's back. Fuma jumped to avoid the imminent swing of one of Asuka's blades, and the third-year, ever attentive, held her second blade behind her to deflect the rebounding shuriken, before spinning to attempt a second slash.

Fuma's shuriken returned to her, and with both in hand, she began a brief exchange of rapid swipes, blocks and dodges between her and Asuka. Fuma blocked as many of Asuka's fast and powerful swings as she could, but several attacks hit their mark, tearing slowly but steadily at Fuma's uniform. The sweat beading on her brow and the shaky way she stepped back as Asuka continued her aggressive offense demonstrated just how uncomfortable Fuma was at close range, as opposed to Asuka, who excelled when she could get up close and personal.

At the earliest opportunity, Fuma leaped high into the air to gain distance between herself and Asuka, but not before Asuka was able to get in a pursuing slash with both swords in an X-pattern against her retreating opponent, leaving Fuma's blouse and skirt in tatters, and leaving her no choice but to shed the rest and retrieve her ninja scroll from between her legs, holding it up.

"Shinobi… _TENSHIN!"_

In a bright burst of orange light, Fuma assumed her shinobi turnover uniform, a cleavage-baring white top with yellow ribbons to match her scarf, orange and black armguards covering her from the ends of her fingers to her biceps, tight black shorts, orange leg guards and sandals.

From her new height, Fuma flung and snapped back her shuriken one after the other in rapid succession, now forcing Asuka on the defensive. She leapt and flipped and strafed to the side to avoid the relentless assault of her twin shuriken, but when Asuka noticed one fling of Fuma's shuriken that wasn't aimed at her, she realized too late what Fuma was trying to do. Asuka gasped as the shuriken flew right past her and hooked its curved blade against Team Green's flag, pulling it from its stand.

"No you don't!" Asuka yelled, lunging for the flag and grabbing it before Fuma could pull it back. She landed back on the ground and tugged the chain taut, but Asuka refused to budge. With the flag hooked in Fuma's shuriken and held back by Asuka's grip, their battle suddenly became a tug-of-war for the flag.

"You used your shuriken to lead me past the flag so you could try to snag it! That's the kind of cleverness I want to see more of, Fuma!" Asuka grunted having to put all her strength into keeping the flag in her grip, while Fuma similarly had to use all her strength to try to wrench it away.

' _I'm so close…'_ Fuma thought. _'Now, how do I tip the scales…?'_

* * *

Meanwhile, at Team Red's base, the battle to defend the flag raged on as Yagyū managed to close the distance between herself and Seimei several times, but each time, Seimei managed to fend her off and gain that distance back. It didn't help that Yagyū was forced to be wary of Seimei's surprising physical strength during close-range engagements, or that Seimei still didn't seem to be putting any effort into what she was doing.

"This is boring…" Seimei eventually yawned. "You bother me about taking things seriously when you won't even…" A pause to yawn. "…fight me for real. If you're going to treat me like a kid that still needs her training wheels, then I'm not even going to bother riding the bike. Shinobi Tenshin."

Seimei's uniform dissolved and her ninja scroll, hidden between her breasts, fell into her hand. She raised it and in a flash of light, donned a set of mint-green pajamas with black buttons and brown slippers. With force, she slammed one end of her rocket launcher against the ground.

"Hiden Ninpō: Risu Sentry."

Suddenly, Seimei's rocket launcher began to quickly change its appearance in a flurry of moving parts, until it had configured itself from a rocket launcher to a standing turret with the barrel of a gatling gun aimed right at Yagyū. Seimei sat down, resting against the side of the turret and lowering her head, falling asleep almost immediately as the turret began to unleash a loud and relentless barrage of bullets in Yagyū's direction. She'd frowned at Seimei's attitude, but seeing her transform her rocket launcher caused her eye to widen, and she took off running immediately to avoid the spray of bullets flying in her direction, ducking behind a wall. As soon as the sentry lost track of her, the bullets stopped, but Yagyū knew she would get sprayed again the moment she stuck her head out.

' _I didn't expect this, but I probably should have… Only Seimei would have her weapon modified to be able to fight for her while she slept and did nothing,'_ Yagyū thought, closing her eye. _'But I'm in no position to complain… She has me pinned down. And Hibari…'_

Yagyū peeked over toward Team Red's flag, where Muramasa seemed to be giving Hibari a fair amount of trouble, outmaneuvering her at every turn. Muramasa seemed fully intent on killing Hibari, as she had, perhaps unintentionally, ordered her to, and Yagyū knew that she had to get past Seimei and help Hibari before she got seriously hurt or worse.

"Alright, Seimei. I'll show you what I'm made of. Shinobi _Tenshin!_ "

In a red flash, she shed her clothes and her ninja scroll, hidden against her belly, fell into her hands. She raised it high and donned her turnover uniform, a red pleated skirt and white blouse with a grey coat and black cloak to complete it.

Seimei's turret kept its sights locked onto the last place it saw Yagyū, just waiting for her to poke her head out. Shortly after the bright flash of red that indicated her transformation, something fast and Yagyū-shaped leapt into the air, and the turret tracked and blew it right out of the sky. What the turret destroyed, though, wasn't Yagyū, but a sculpted glob of ink in Yagyū's image. The turret reoriented itself to its previous position and spotted the true Yagyū charging right toward it, unleashing another round of bullets to try to take her down for real.

Yagyū was ready for the turret to aim at her again, and unfolded her umbrella, holding it in front of her and spinning it, deflecting every bullet aimed at her. When Yagyū had closed the distance, she swung the umbrella and sliced half the barrel right off with her weapon's sharp hidden blades along its rim, disabling the turret completely.

One of Seimei's eyes opened, squinted, and her catnap came to a quick end as she sprung up and leaped onto her turret with Yagyū following right behind. The size of their battlefield had shrunken considerably, forcing both into a close-quarter combat situation. At first, Yagyū seemed on the defensive, keeping in mind Seimei's considerable physical strength, but it didn't take Yagyū very long to pick apart Seimei's lack of melee prowess.

A sloppily-thrown punch from Seimei was swiftly dodged, and Yagyū grabbed her wrist and swept her legs out from underneath her in one smooth motion. Yagyū slammed Seimei's back down against the turret and held her arms down by her wrists

"I hope I'm being serious enough for you now, Seimei," Yagyū huffed before looking toward Hibari. "Now let's call a truce for a moment. I think Muramasa is out of control and she needs to be stopped."

Seimei raised her legs and wrapped them around Yagyū's waist before grunting as she bucked up her hips hard enough to cause them both to roll backwards off the turret with Seimei landing on top of Yagyū and pinning _her_ to the ground now.

"Hehe… Like I'd fall for something like that."

Yagyū grit her teeth, looking frantically over toward the flag. _'I can't stay here anymore… I have to help Hibari!'_ With a grunt of effort, Yagyū twisted to the side and rolled them over to get on top again, struggling and wrestling to try to get away from Seimei while the turret aimed itself harmlessly at Yagyū, unable to fire in its current state.

Meanwhile, near the flag, Hibari flew backwards and skid on her heels along the ground after a brutal blow from Muramasa. Their aggressive melee had left both with their outfits half-shredded, Hibari's body sporting fresh, nasty bruises and a cut on her forehead, and Muramasa's metal plating stripping away from her torso and neck slightly to reveal some of her complex circuitry. Her left leg and parts of her face twitched and ticked, and sparks jumped from the spaces between her Vernier fists' fingers.

After Muramasa had decided to get serious, things had turned against Hibari's favor. Where she was easily thrashing the blonde android before, now they seemed to be fighting evenly, with Muramasa causing serious, merciless damage that Hibari had no choice but to return with interest to avoid being seriously hurt or crippled by Muramasa's suddenly ruthless offensive.

It was the coldness of Muramasa's expression, and that unrelenting, unmerciful force behind each strike that was beginning to make Hibari uneasy. Over time, she didn't feel as though she was fighting her favorite little robot anymore, even though this was exactly what she asked for.

"Muramasa… directive," Hibari called out, but Muramasa shook her head.

"Ignored. Accepting a directive from Owner Hibari would not logically coincide with my standing directive to terminate Owner Hibari. My prime directive is to please Owner Hibari. If termination will please Owner Hibari, I must oblige."

' _I messed up…'_ Hibari realized, her face falling and growing even more worried. _'Muramasa didn't take my pushing how I wished she would take it. Why did I expect her to…? What do I do?'_

"Ninto," Hibari said, and her rabbit companion appeared suddenly from behind her back, looking up at Hibari. "We… If we can't talk Mura down, then we'll just have to _shut_ her down. I know we shouldn't go all-out on the first-years, b-but we don't have a choice!"

Hibari took a deep breath and lifted her hands, Ninto leaping onto her back, and when she exhaled, she clenched her fists and caused her arms to grow from the biceps down, so that now the size of her arms, while disproportionate to her own body, were now on par with the size of Muramasa's. Once again, the two of them rushed toward each other, Hibari's movements and attacks now backed by shaky and regretful killing intent.

Muramasa swung first, swinging one of her fists, then the other, but finding her attacks now swiftly blocked by Hibari's own massive hands. Hibari ducked low under Muramasa's next attack and seemed as though she was about to charge in to get closer. Muramasa responded by raising her hands and swinging them downward to swiftly crush Hibari beneath them.

Hibari's special eyes gleamed and she stopped mid lunge to strafe to the side, reading Muramasa's attempt to smash her and avoiding it, following it up with her own powerful blow right to the side of the head. Muramasa's left eye went to static, and the blonde android staggered, before a heavy uppercut knocked her even more off-balance, knocking her into the air.

Hibari leaped to follow Muramasa in the air, kicking her back down to the ground and springing up higher as a result. The second-year curled into a ball and flipped a couple of times through the air before she uncurled and grew suddenly in size so that now her entire body was many times larger than it was before. And with her new size and steep height, Hibari began to fall rump-first toward the ground, aiming to flatten Muramasa underneath her completely.

Muramasa recovered from her landing and looked up before the plating of her ears opened and hissed with steam and red light. She lifted her massive hands into the air and caught Hibari, stopping her cold. The force of the impact still caused a forceful shockwave to roll across the rooftop, and the surface of the roof began to crack in several places, but Muramasa, though her arms and joints were groaning from the strain, held strong and kept Hibari from crushing her.

"H-Huh?" Hibari gasped, completely surprised at just how unexpectedly strong Muramasa was at full power, and yelled out with even greater surprise when Muramasa then one-upped herself and pushed Hibari back up into the air with her own loud yell.

Muramasa sprung up into the air, using the thrusters of her gauntlets to maneuver quickly and easily through the air to get above her massive, helpless opponent. Muramasa's eyes glowed dangerously before she unleashed a barrage of powerful strikes in the air, so quickly that her hands were like barely-visible blurs. Hibari tried her best to raise her arms and defend, but the sheer force and multitude of strikes broke apart her resistance, and with one final punch right to the stomach, Hibari exploded out of the remainder of her outer clothing, shrinking back down and flying like a meteor toward the roof again.

When the smoke cleared, Hibari laid flat on her back, panty-clad and paralyzed with pain. Ninto laid on his belly beside her, stunned spirals in his eyes.

' _Get up…'_ Hibari willed herself, slowly turning her head to look at her own hand. Static jumped from her fingertips and every nerve tingled. Every movement hurt, and every instinct in her body was trying to keep her down and defenseless. The second-year grit her teeth and clenched her fists before she slowly began to roll over so she could sit up. _'Yagyū… Mura…'_

Hibari had managed to struggle up to one knee with a pained groan before she slowly looked up and saw death coming toward her like a speeding bullet. With a totally blank and stoic expression, Muramasa sped down from the air to the ground, one of her fists launched forward, glowing yellow with how suffused with electricity it was. Her mind emptied with the expectation that she wouldn't be having any more thoughts momentarily, but just before contact, millimeters away from Hibari's face, Muramasa stopped.

For several long moments, they were frozen like this, Hibari's eyes wide with blank shock, Muramasa's eyes hidden by the shadows of her bowed head and her bangs.

"I must obey my directive." Muramasa whispered, but not to Hibari, to herself. "Must… Obey… Directive…"

Muramasa's fist trembled, her neck twitching, the cat-ear plating on top of her head unfolding and glowing dangerously red, hissing smoke. She slowly raised her head, and her face was pained, resistant, and regretful. Emotion was poking through her robotic exterior again, but she was still stuck right where she was, simultaneously struggling to move and struggling to hold herself back. Tiny shreds of her turnover attire and the undergarments she wore beneath slowly fell away as if crumbling to ash, until Muramasa stood completely bare.

"Mu-"

Finally, something broke. There came a popping sound from within Muramasa's head, followed by the sound of burning metal and the sight of smoke coming out of one of her eyes. Muramasa went silent, her face went stoic, and the lights of her eyes went out. Slowly, Muramasa collapsed forward, and Hibari, who was still somewhat slow from her crippling shock, could do nothing but watch as the blonde android crashed face-first onto the ground, inert.

Hibari hiccuped, her eyes watering and her teeth digging into her bottom lip. "Muramasa… Yagyū! Yagyū, we've gotta stop the exercise! I think Muramasa is _super_ -broken!"

Both Yagyū and Seimei looked over toward Hibari, but Yagyū thought quickly enough to take advantage of Seimei's brief distraction and finally kick her off to separate herself from the sleepy shinobi and swiftly swing her umbrella to launch a thick glob of ink that struck Seimei and sent her flying back toward one of the roof's walls, pinning her in place with the sticky substance, forcing her to struggle to try to get free, to no avail so far.

Yagyū jumped to her feet and looked toward Hibari. "Grab the flag, Hibari. The quickest way to end this exercise is to get that flag back to our base as fast as possible. Let's go!"

Hibari bit her lip and took one last sorrowful look at the motionless android, still hissing smoke from her head, before she nodded her head and with all the strength she could muster, she shook off the rest of her paralysis and ran for the flag, pulling it from its base.

" _I'll_ protect you, Hibari…" Yagyū promised with a firm nod. "Now come on."

The pink-haired second-year responded with a silent nod before they both leapt away, racing back toward their base. Seimei furrowed her brows as she watched them go, then looked over toward Muramasa, concerned about her condition.

"This is bad… I've gotta hurry and get out of her so I can… can… Zzz…" Unable to help herself, Seimei went limp, falling fast asleep right where she was, glued to the wall.

 **I know I said last chapter that this one would conclude the exercise, but I underestimated how long** _ **this**_ **chapter would be. xP So now, for sure, it'll be chapter 3 that concludes the exercise and begins to introduce the Hebijo girls.**

 **Stay tuned for that. I'll try to be snappier about these uploads, too.**

 **~M.H.C~**


	3. New Semester Pt 3

**Another busy month. . I promise I'll try to do better on these updates, bear with me!**

 **Enjoy the conclusion of the exercise and the introduction of the Hebijo first-years!**

Neither Fuma nor Asuka had made any headway on seizing or protecting the flag. Asuka pulled on the flag and Fuma pulled on the chain attached to the flag with equal strength, and appeared to be tiring out at an equal rate. They were getting nowhere, giving Asuka's teammates more time to capture the first-years' own flag. Fuma knew this, and her mind raced with panic, trying to come up with some way to tip this in her favor.

"Grrr…!" she growled, her head hissing with steam. "C'mon, Asuka! Just… let it _go_!"

Asuka head was full of just as much steam as Fuma as she dug her heels into the roof and continued trying to keep it in her grip with all her strength. "No… _You_ let it go!"

Fuma opened her mouth, a moment away from another fruitless retort, before it hit her, like a lightbulb clicking on in her mind. She grinned and instead said: "Heh… Alright, whatever you say, Asuka!"

And with that, Fuma released her chain, and with suddenly no resistance, Asuka yelped and flung herself backwards, her grip slipping from the flag in surprise.

Fuma reached back and grabbed her second shuriken before it hit the ground, before sprinting forward and leaving a gust of wind in her wake. She closed the distance between herself and Asuka in an instant, deflected the senior's desperate attempt to swipe at Fuma and keep her away from the flag, and grabbed it right out of the air before leaping and kicking off Asuka's chest, knocking her flat on her back and springing high into the air in one motion.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Fuma cheered, twirling the flag and snapping her second shuriken back into her grip before grinning down at Asuka. "Check me out! Not supposed to win, huh?" she taunted before she leaped off.

Asuka shook her head and sat up, watching Fuma as she flew off before sighing. "It's not over yet, you know… But now that I don't have to sit here protecting the flag anymore, I can fight for real now. Shinobi… _Tenshin!"_

Fuma wasn't resting on her laurels with her small victory. She figured the same thing that Asuka did: there was absolutely no reason for her not to give chase right now, and so Fuma dashed across the rooftops with all the speed she could muster, fiddling with her shuriken and the base of the flagpole.

'Should I call out to Ayame and Hiji for backup? No… If they haven't taken down the grads yet, they'll all just rush me down… But if I take the long way around to try to avoid them in case they haven't won, I won't have _any_ support and there's a better chance Asuka will catch me and beat my ass… Is charging straight down the middle really my bes-'

Fuma's inner mumbling monologue of frantic thoughts was disturbed by the sounds of an explosion behind her, followed quickly by another. Fuma looked back and could see smoke and dust rising because of the blasts, but had no indication of what was causing them, other than that it _had_ to be Asuka.

As Fuma passed by a higher building, she got the confirmation she was looking for. Asuka burst out of the roof of a building just behind her, leaping like a frog before smashing her way through the wall of that taller building out a sight. A split second later, Asuka then burst her way through another wall of that building right toward Fuma.

" _Gimme!_ "

Fuma squealed, both from excitement at being able to see her idol in her signature green plaid skirt and yellow vest, and in fear at Asuka's new glittery-eyed aggression. Fuma was just barely able to dodge Asuka's lunge, watching as she flew into the roof of the building, then leaped through the building's wall, below Fuma, and into the wall of the next building over that she was moving toward.

For a long few moments, Fuma had to endure the tension of an essentially underground Asuka chasing her down relentlessly and waiting for the opportunity to strike. It finally happened in the center of the roof of a smaller building: Asuka burst through the roof directly underneath Fuma, launching them both into the air and forcing Fuma to release the flag.

Fuma grit her teeth and watched scraps of her outfit flying away from her as Asuka tackled her, along with the flag spiraling out of her reach.

"Not _yet!_ " she yelled, squirming her arm free from Asuka's bear-hug and flinging one of her shuriken. With perfect aim and technique, the shuriken's chain wrapped around the flagpole, and the sharpened tip of the flagpole's base gleamed as Fuma yanked it back, pulling the flag toward them, with its point aimed right at Asuka's back.

Asuka looked back and squinted before she pushed off and leapt away from Fuma to avoid being speared by the newly-sharpened pole. Fuma narrowly avoided stabbing herself by blocking the spear she made with her other shuriken as soon as Asuka had moved.

"Fuma! You're just full of surprises today!" Asuka laughed as they fell from the sky.

Asuka's compliment, even amid their fierce fight for the flag, caused her heart to swell with joy and her face to split in a wide grin. She looked down toward the midfield at Ayame and Hijikata as they battled just as fiercely, and made a swift decision on what to do. There was no avoiding being seen anyway.

" _Hiji! Ayame!_ I've-"

Fuma paused mid-yell, noticing something out of the corner of her eye that sent her train of thought racing in a whole different direction. Speeding toward the midfield, barely dressed and closely followed by Yagyū was Hibari, holding _their_ team flag.

Whatever she was about to tell her teammates was lost and immediately replaced by a frantic, single-minded command.

"Our flag! _Stop them!_ "

* * *

With only a few words, Fuma had fueled a fire in Hijikata's heart, burning with the desire not to fail in front of their seniors. Her clash with Ikaruga was brought to a sudden stop as she kicked her away before leaping back herself, and her eyes gleamed as she gave the graduate an iron stare.

"With this, Ikaruga, I must end this! Hiden Ninpō: _Steel Stampede!_ "

Hijikata reared back, and with frightening speed, she sprinted headfirst like a charging rhino right toward Ikaruga.

 _'Too fast. She'll run me down. I have to stop her!'_ Ikaruga thought quickly as she unsheathed her blade, swinging it through the air and sending waves of blue flames to crash into Hijikata as she ran. Blast after merciless blast slammed right into Hijikata and peeled away at her armor, but it didn't slow Hijikata down at all. When Hijikata was close enough, she suddenly stopped her charge and leaped into the air with her mallet raised high above her, her guard completely lowered.

"Why leave yourself so open?! Oukaensen!" Ikaruga yelled, and with a heartened slash of her blade, the next fiery blast she launched from her blade's slashing motion took on the form of a blue phoenix that screeched as it flew straight toward Hijikata, resulting in a tremendously forceful explosion upon impact. Despite the attack's power, Hijikata was not blown back, and continued to fall through the air, her armor completely gone and leaving her pantyclad with a pained but steely expression on her face.

"Nose Horn… _SMASH!_ " Hijikata yelled as she brought her massive mallet down hard upon a stunned Ikaruga, who just barely managed to dodge a direct blow, but was still blown right out of her clothes by the massive shockwave that burst outward from the force of the roof-shattering impact.

Ikaruga slammed into the edge of the cracking roof, so rattled by Hijikata's unyielding attack that she could barely move. And Hijikata, now that the adrenaline of her own unstoppable attack had dissipated, was suddenly reeling in pain, also paralyzed where she knelt, tightly gripping her mallet as she trembled, looking over herself at her wounds, her burns, and her crumbling undergarments.

"This is not all I can endure… Come on… get up!" she growled to herself as she struggled to lift herself back up again.

On the other roof, Ayame's battle with Katsuragi quickly turned into a one-sided hit-and-run. Katsuragi was once again dominating the battlefield with her incredible strength and forceful presence, and Ayame could do nothing more than use her own incredible speed to poke and prod through Katsuragi's guard whenever she could.

 _'Like a brick wall… Fighting Kat is like fighting Hiji, but with_ two _mallets…'_ Ayame thought to herself as she ducked low in a quick split to avoid another of Katsuragi's heavy-legged kicks. Fuma's declaration that their flag had been captured only made her even more frantic in her thinking. How was she going to end this and help Fuma?

The answer she thought of probably wasn't the most helpful, as it tied up both her and Katsuragi simultaneously, but by far, it was the most satisfying. With a gleam in her eyes, Ayame charged forward, seemingly opening herself up for a direct kick to the head, and Katsuragi, the impulsive fighter she was, was happy to oblige her with a fierce front kick.

At the last moment, Ayame ducked to barely dodge the kick, and put her fluid flexibility on display as she ducked low enough to the ground to slip underneath Katsuragi between her legs to get behind her, caressing her fingers along the graduate's inner thigh as she did. Immediately, Katsuragi froze up.

"H-! Wha-?!"

And before she could recover, Ayame whirled around and leaped onto Katsuragi's back, wrapping her legs tightly around her waist, slipping her arms beneath hers, flipping aside the unbuttoned halves of her blouse and grabbing two massive, pillowy handfuls of Katsuragi's bare breasts.

"Ahhh… I've been trying to resist all this time, Kat, but I just can't help it~! Your boobs and my hands are like opposite poles of a sexy little magnet~!"

Katsuragi's face went blue and her body went rigid for a moment before she flailed and squirmed, struggling to try and get Ayame off her back.

"Ahh! H-Hey, hands off the merchandise! This isn't funny, Ayame! I'm being harassed!"

Thoroughly distracted by her own hypocrisy, Katsuragi couldn't lend any aid to Hibari and Yagyū as they passed by, and the pair leaped directly into the path of Fuma, who was still being pursued by Asuka.

"Our flag…! Asuka…" Yagyū sighed before leaping quickly ahead and unfolding her umbrella. "I'll get our flag back, get back to the base, Hibari!"

Fuma squinted. Yagyū was rushing right toward her from the front, while Asuka was still at her rear. _'Perfect conditions. This'll teach you all to underestimate us,'_ Fuma thought with a wide grin as she held the flag between her teeth and readied her shuriken, gripping the chain at its midpoint.

"Hiden Ninpō!" Fuma yelled when Yagyū was mere meters away from meeting her in the air. Manipulating the wind around her, she began to whirl around in the air at blurring speeds, holding her chain up above her head and causing it to whirl in a massive diameter around her as well. "Fuma Hurri-Chain!"

Neither Asuka nor Yagyū could stop to get away in time and both were immediately struck by the whirling chains and caught up in Fuma's attack. After a few more moments, Fuma stopped twirling in the air and released her chain from her grip. Yagyū and Asuka, now nauseously dizzy, were also wrapped up in Fuma's chains, falling to one of the roofs below and immediately struggling to try and get free.

Meanwhile, Fuma immediately set her eyes upon her next target, springing off the wall of a building and charging through the air right toward Hibari.

"End of the line, Hibari! Release our flag!" she yelled, swinging the flag she held to clash with the one in Hibari's.

For a brief few moments, Fuma and Hibari clashed in the air, with Fuma immediately taken aback and overcome by Hibari's hurried aggression. Fighting Hibari, even for those few moments, was unlike Fuma's battle with Asuka. Her attacks were parried and countered so quickly and easily that it made Fuma look downright foolish, and the dumbfounded expression on Fuma's face as she was disarmed added to the image.

What surprised Fuma more than anything else was the fear and worry in Hibari's eyes. Whatever happened while Hibari had taken their flag left her with little patience for the kid gloves that everyone else was using.

"Sorry, Fuma… I've gotta end this now now now!" Hibari said, whirling in the air with both flags in hand and sending Fuma rocketing down to the roofs with a powerful hip check to the side of the head, before continuing her mad rush along the rooftops, barely slowed down.

Fuma laid stunned for a moment, her pride more bruised than her face. Her heart swelled with how well she was doing up until now. Asuka's words had encouraged her to treat it like a life-or-death mission, but all that time, she was still being toyed with.

Fuma grit her teeth and clenched her fist. On the verge of discouragement, she felt a fire lighting in her heart, and a wispy orange energy pouring from her pores.

 _'Prove yourself… Prove yourself!'_

Fuma forced herself to rise, ignoring the frail frays and tatters of her outfit and leaping swiftly into the air. Seeing Fuma's intent to continue pursuing Hibari, and sensing the wrongness of Hibari's urgency, the rest of Team Green mobilized for a final defense. With a burst of power, Asuka and Yagyū broke free from the chains that bound them, Katsuragi stopped and rolled forward, squashing Ayame underneath her and surprising her into letting go and allowing Katsuragi to leap once again into the fray. Ikaruga pulled herself to a knee, then to a standing position, fighting her unsteady shakiness and leaping away as well.

Standing between Fuma and Hibari were two upperclassmen and two graduates, all four of them looking determined to stop Fuma in her tracks. But just as quickly as the opposition rose, the cavalry arrived to face it. Hijikata finally found the second wind she was looking for, seeing Ikaruga able to rise again. Ayame was quick to flip back onto her feet, hopping across her roof to collect fuma's chained shuriken before rushing to her side to deliver them, and from far behind, Seimei charged with all speed, angling her rocket launcher toward the ground behind her and firing, launching herself toward the rest of her team with the force of the explosion, but singing some of the pajamas off her back as a result.

Fuma was tempted to ask Seimei where Muramasa was, but was too overcome with this new burst of sensations to focus on anything other than the task at hand.

" _Go!_ " she yelled, and the first-years all moved as one. Seimei aimed her launcher behind her and rocket-jumped straight ahead. Hijikata erased the pain and weakness she was feeling from her mind and picked up speed with another Steel Stampede, and Ayame turned off her pervertedness for the time being, clenching her fist and charging in at Fuma's side with all the speed she could muster.

Ikaruga leaped to intercept Hijikata, and while she couldn't stop her charge, she redirected Hijikata to send them both hurtling toward a roof. Katsuragi and Ayame flew at each other once again, Ayame fearlessly battling the graduate head-on with a flurry of kicks this time, despite the difference in strength, just to give Fuma time to catch up to Hibari. Seimei and Yagyū met in the air immediately after, Seimei crashing the front of her launcher against Yagyū's umbrella. The impact quickly began to freeze the barrels of Seimei's launcher, and when she tried to launch another rocket, the explosion shattered the ice and knocked Yagyū and Seimei away from each other, but the smoke venting from one of the barrels betrayed the damage that had been done.

"Hnn… Hiden Ninpō: Full Salvo," she called out, and with her other three barrels, unleashed a continuing barrage of rockets aimed erratically below her.

"Ice Feet!" Yagyū called out her own attack, whirling her umbrella above her as she summoned a long squid tentacle to whip about and smash some of the rockets out of the air. Several still managed to fall, and Fuma dodged around the explosions as she charged forward alone as quickly as she could. A rocket exploded at her feet and consumed the roof she was standing on in smoke, but just as quickly as it happened, Fuma leaped through the smoke with both shuriken in hand, ready to come down hard on Hibari and fight to retake the flags.

But sure enough, Asuka was right there to intercept her, and Fuma's eyes widened, noticing a faint and wispy green aura around her idol. The pair leaped away from each other, and at lightning speed, flashes of orange and green sparked the air around Hibari as Fuma and Asuka clashed desperately.

Meters away from the enemy base, Asuka and Fuma bashed each other's weapons out of their hands, but while Asuka was surprised, Fuma's quickness and determination continued to shine through, and with a loud yell, she swung to punch Asuka across the face as hard as she could. The senior was rattled by the blow, grunting loudly as she was knocked away, and Fuma turned away from her and used that opening to make one last desperate leap at Hibari.

But it was too late. Before Fuma could reach her, Hibari had thrust both flags back down into Team Green's flag stand, securing their victory. Stunned and crushed, the orange aura circling Fuma dissipated immediately, all that energy she found faded, and she limply tumbled across the ground to land head over heels against the wall.

Everyone else, sensing the exercise's finality, ceased their fighting immediately. Uniformly, all the first-years looked crestfallen at their loss, but none looked more defeated than Fuma. On the other hand, their seniors had kind expressions and words for their opponents.

"Hijikata, you had me very worried…" Ikaruga said, stretching her back and walking forward to help a wobbling Hijikata stay on her feet. "But I'd say this is proof enough that you're ready to protect Hanzō Academy, wouldn't you agree?" She gestured to them both, scratched, filthy, and a fair bit more than half-naked.

As soon as the fighting stopped, Ayame fell out, rattled beyond comprehension after trading unguarded blows with Katsuragi for those brief moments. Katsuragi took the liberty of hoisting the spiral-eyed Ayame onto her shoulder as she ran to regroup with the others. "Heh. Not too shabby at all, Ayame! You might be stronger than me by the time you graduate!"

Yagyū and Seimei both touched down next to each other on the same roof. "I still think you have a lot to learn about diligence and seriousness as a shinobi, Seimei," Yagyū scolded, before sighing. "But for what it's worth… You do good when you _do_ apply yourself. Keep that up."

Seimei pouted at the damaged barrel of her launcher, but smiled at Yagyū's words. "Thanks. I'll try to… to… Zzz…" Just like that, Seimei went limp, dropping her launcher on the ground and collapsing on top of it, fast asleep. A vein throbbed on the back of Yagyū's head, and she crossed her arms. "Why do I even bother…"

Fuma still hadn't moved from where she sat splayed out against the wall, but she raised her brows when she looked up and saw Asuka bent down and holding out a hand to help her up. "Come on, Fuma. Don't look so down!"

"We lost…" Fuma sighed in response. "I thought I was proving my strength to you Asuka, but… even when we were kind of winning, you and the others were just… playing around with us, weren't you?"

Asuka pouted before reaching down further and dragging Fuma away from the wall, yanking her up to her feet. "Of course we were going easy on you! It's your first day as elites! If we busted out everything we had on you guys right out of the gate, you wouldn't even have had a chance to prove anything to us! But you really did impress me, Fuma. Right up to the end, you fought your hardest. You even made me have to fight hard, too, and you still got past me. When I lost my weapons, I paused to think 'Oops,', but you didn't falter at all, and when you hit me, you didn't even look back to see if I was okay. You went right for the flag!"

Asuka grinned widely, putting her hand on Fuma's head. "You may have lost this time, but you've got the makings of a really powerful shinobi in your future, Fuma. I'm proud of you."

Fuma's expression lifted and her eyes brightened once again at Asuka's praise, but before she could respond, Hibari called out.

"Guys! We've gotta hurry back to the other base! Muramasa is super- _duper_ broken!"

It occurred to Fuma just then that Muramasa was the only one who wasn't among them, and hearing Hibari's words caused the mood to take a sudden and serious shift once again. Hibari hurriedly called for Ninto and his cloud, mounting it and racing off back in the other direction with the rest of the Hanzō class in hot pursuit.

What they all failed to notice was the tiny speck floating above the rooftops, a spherical purple eye with a strange pattern on its pupil: a U-like arch with points along its outer rim, surrounding two vertically-aligned circles. The eye watched each of them closely as they sped away.

"Hm…~" an alluring female voice hummed before the eye closed and shimmered from view.

* * *

 _*~*~*Hebijo Academy*~*~*_

Meanwhile, there were places in Asakusa where the sun didn't shine quite as brightly. A misty forest descending into a quiet valley where a long train of hushed young girls followed each other to the steps of the castle in the hills where the Hebijo Clandestine Girls' Academy loomed. For all the new first-years who survived initiation, the campus welcomed them with open jaws.

Amidst the flood of new students, there were some that stood out. Specifically, only five. Whereas the vast majority of new Hebijo students wore plain black uniforms, signifying their survival of initiation, these five, in addition, would have a badge stitched to their uniforms, showing two snakes intertwined into an infinity symbol, signifying that they thrived during the initiation, demonstrating the skills of an elite.

Four of those five elites walked together at the end of the lengthy line of students moving through the academy's front door, and of those four, the redhead stopped, her deep purple eyes gazing up toward the campus. She stretched her arms out wide, took a deep breath, and…

"AAAAAAAHA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA! Finally, I've arrived… The vile, twisted nurturing I've received in the deepest pits of hell have prepared me, and now here I stand, bearing the fruits of my unholy labors! An elite, one of the very strongest in the most _evil_ school of shinobi in Japan. Cower, foolish mortals… _Dark Queen Ashiya_ draws near!"

"Do you _ever_ shut up…?" the golden-eyed brunette of the elite group sighed, continuing to walk forward. "Since before the initiation test yesterday, you've been acting like a clown. Having the skills of an elite is no excuse for such unsightly behavior. You're a shinobi."

"Ahhh… Y-You don't have to be so hard on her, Chitose. She may be a little... u-unique… But we're all elites, we should respect each other, and maybe, ahhh… b-be friends?" the green-haired girl of the group suggested in a soft and coy voice.

Chitose paused and turned her head, offering only a deadpan stare to her fellow elite before shaking her head. "No, I don't think so. What's the point of making friends in a world where the same person I'd eat lunch beside today, I could be burying tomorrow?" She turned back and continued walking. "We're shinobi. Weapons. Weapons don't _need_ friends."

Ashiya and the green-haired girl both frowned, but perked up and blinked when the fourth of their group, a blonde girl with grey eyes, stepped between them and put her arms around their shoulders. "Gee, what a buzzkill. I wouldn't sweat her, though. We'll be working so closely together from here on out that there's no way we won't end up being friends. I'll start! You're Bashō, right? Call me Ibuki."

Bashō smiled at Ibuki's friendliness, and Ashiya chortled again, her hands on her hips. "Mhmm~ I _suppose_ you mere mortals will make fitting suitable minions. On your shoulders I shall stand and rise higher and higher, to slay the very gods above!"

Ibuki and Bashō blinked and furrowed their brows. "Er… Riiiiight. Let's just go in, they'll kill us if we're late on our first day," Ibuki suggested

Nodding silently, Bashō followed Ibuki inside, leaving Ashiya alone. Her haughty expression faded away and her face fell. Sighing to herself, she continued ahead as well.

The regular student body all studied and trained together in their large, spacious, and indistinct dojos, but the elites of the school had their own place of study which the new first-years were directed toward. Bashō, Ibuki, and Ashiya eventually caught up to Chitose and stepped into the spacious area that would serve as their classroom.

"Ugh, I was wondering when the rest of you were going to show up. You all took your sweet little time getting here, didn't you? I wish I could say I expected more, but…"

An elegant and haughty voice greeted the four of them as they entered, and resting on a couch with her legs up on one of the tables in the extravagant study hall was the last of the five first-year elites, a girl with large red eyes and long flowing blonde hair, straighter, lusher, and neater than Ibuki's.

"You're Sōji," Chitose identified her right away as she stepped inside, crossing her arms. "You had the highest amount of kills in the initiation test and scored first overall."

"Your praise and adoration is appreciated," Sōji chuckled. "But that's to be expected, isn't it? Weakness, and tardiness, are 'unsightly' for shinobi of my caliber, wouldn't you agree?"

Sōji's teasing imitation of Chitose's voice caused her brows rose. "You…? If you heard me say that, then you didn't get here much earlier than the rest of us! What right do you have to call us tardy?"

Sōji flipped her hair and chuckled. "It's simple. Every second I'm here alone is a second of my time that those behind me are wasting. Wouldn't it have been a sight to see if all of us had arrived early and set ourselves to studying and gaining a quick understanding of the basics through our initiation performance and mutual discussion, impressing our sensei and showing behavior only fitting for elites? But your tardiness only gives _me_ more time to earn all that credit. I suppose on some level, I should thank you for your service!"

Ibuki's eye twitched. "Wha- But you _just_ got here, too! It's like half the class just like to live in their own little fantasy world or something!"

"Foolish mortal! My infernal purposes are no delusions!" Ashiya asserted with an angry pout.

Bashō shuffled nervously in place behind everyone else as the arguments continued. "Ahh… A-Ahhh… G-Girls, we shouldn't be fighting like this i-if we're going to be, ahh… w-working together… Girls?"

Bashō's voice was lost amidst the bickering, but she was the only one who noticed one of the other doors in the room slowly slide open, blinking in confusion and surprise as something began to peek out of what… appeared to be a closet or dressing room. Bashō wasn't even sure what it was at first until it shuffled out of the dressing room and slinked slowly toward the large office desk near the wall of windows looking out onto the Hebijo courtyard.

A tall figure wrapped up completely in a big purple sleeping bag that was only slightly unzipped enough to reveal the soft and timid face of the woman inside of it.

"Hi."

The new voice brought the arguing to a halt, and everyone else turned and gave the same surprised and puzzled expression as Bashō. The stares appeared to be making this tall newcomer uncomfortable, and she frowned and looked away, fidgeting in her sleeping bag cocoon before she continued.

"U-Uh, hi. I'm… My name is Murasaki. I'm a third-year elite, and… Miyabi-sensei isn't here, so I'll… be leading you today, I guess. It's nice to meet you all, and… I hope we can get along this year w-without a lot of, uh… fighting."

The woman unzipped her sleeping bag a little bit more, enough to tug a blue stuffed bear from within it, shuffling forward and setting it on the desk. "This is Bebeby. P-Please be nice to her… and me. So, um… what are your names?"

Sōji put her hands on her hips. "You should already know our names, shouldn't you? Weren't the elites overseeing the initiation yesterday? I would've expected you to have a role sheet! _I'm_ probably at the top, for your information~"

Murasaki blinked and leaned over to look at the papers across the desk in front of her. "…O-Oh. I see, we do have a list. You are… Ashiya, then?"

Sōji went rigid, and Ashiya giggled, raising her hand. "Summoned as named! _I_ am Ashiya."

"Oh… Are you, um… Bashō?" Murasaki directed at Sōji, causing her eye to twitch. The real Bashō bashfully raised her hand. "Ah… That would be me."

Murasaki furrowed her brows. "Sorry, sorry… You're Chitose."

"No!" Sōji spouted, and Chitose nodded to Murasaki, crossing her arms. "Present."

"…I-Ibuki?" Murasaki tried again nervously, and Ibuki snickered and raised her hand as Sōji proceeded to stomp her foot.

"You called everyone's name _except_ mine! Are you mocking me?!"

Murasaki quickly shook her head. "N-No, no! Sorry, uh… Sōji. This list is in alphabetical order. Your name is at the bottom."

Something broke. Rushing forward and climbing on top of the desk, Sōji pointed at Murasaki in a white-eyed rage. "You take that back! No list of names that _I'm_ on should ever have _me_ at the bottom of it! Go reprint it or something! Put it in order of initiation scores!"

Murasaki whined and zipped up her sleeping bag to hide her face completely before turning herself toward the door she came out of. "Ryōbi, Ryōna, I can't do this… Please help…"

Two more girls emerged from the dressing room, a well-endowed blonde and a modest-figured brunette. Ryōna giggles. "Heehee! Murasaki, you lasted a lot longer than we thought you would!"

"A little under seven minutes. I _told_ you ten was unreasonable, you bimbo! Pay up!" Ryōbi shouted at her sister, who grinned widely as she pulled a small wallet from inside of her shirt, handing the whole thing to Ryōbi.

Chitose and Ibuki both tilted their heads with stupefied expression. "I-I'm surrounded by weirdoes…" Ibuki realized.

"Is _anyone_ here going to act like a real shinobi?" Chitose groaned, exasperated.

Ryōbi put her hands on her hips. "Nevermind the past few minutes, you guys. We were just trying to get Murasaki to come out of her shell a little more. As a third-year, she's the head of our class, so she needs to start acting like it! Miyabi! Imu!"

Murasaki whined, still hiding in her sleeping bag and laying down behind the desk. "I wanna go home…"

"No can do," another new voice responded, and the door the first-years came through slammed open. Standing in the doorway with a powerful presence was a white-haired woman with sharp golden eyes, and just behind her, a slightly shorter girl with light brown hair and a foxy expression, both wearing track suits. "And that's Miyabi- _sensei_ to you now, Ryōbi."

Ryōbi rolled her eyes as she walked up to one side of the desk. Ryōna skipped forward to stand beside her. Imu gave Murasaki an exasperated expression. "You've got to do better, Murasaki. We won't be around forever to take the initiative _for_ you."

"S-Sorry, sis…" Murasaki sighed inching along the ground before standing and unzipping her sleeping bag to let it fall away completely.

Finally, Miyabi marched to stand directly behind the desk, prodding Sōji swiftly in the stomach with one finger. The haughty blonde seized up and stumbled backwards, tumbling off of the desk and onto her butt.

"You all are standing here because you've proven to the five of us that you're a cut above the rest. You're diamonds in the rough, and we've decided to make it our duty to polish and sharpen you into gems that will shine for the glory of evil," Miyabi started, squinting. "I care nothing for your pasts. Only your futures. And if you want to even _have_ a future, take our teachings to heart and get your acts together quickly."

Miyabi looked over each one of them for a long moment before she smiled. "Welcome to Hebijo. Try _hard_ not to die."

* * *

 **Again, super sorry this took such a long time to get out. I'm happy with how this turned out, and hopefully, the next couple of chapters where the Hebijo girls are able to show off their stuff will be just as fun to do.**

 **If you'd like to see more, be sure to leave a review. They encourage me to keep writing.**


	4. Budding Evil Pt 1

**Welcome back! I feel like I'm in a better writing groove now. Hopefully, that means more consistent updates going forward.**

 **Thanks for the reviews so far, they mean an awful lot! I hope with these next couple of chapters, I can do the Hebijo girls as much justice as I hope I gave the Hanzō girls. Enjoy!**

After introductions were out of the way, Miyabi and her class of elites left the classroom to navigate the maze-like hallways of the daunting palace that was Hebijo Academy. Sōji, as expected, took the lead, walking alongside Miyabi and Imu as if they were equals. The haughty air she carried about her persisted, but she looked at the graduates – Miyabi in particular – with something approaching respect.

"You know, Miyabi, in such a brief time since you graduated, you've put quite a mark on the world… My family knows your name and greatly respects your strength as a shinobi."

Miyabi silently turned her head and looked down at Sōji, raising a brow as she awaited the girl's point.

"It's just got me wondering, is all… What made you want to come back here just one summer later to teach the elite class here? I mean, _surely_ there's better things you could be doing with your time than bossing around some kids, right? Myself not included, I assure you, we're worth each other's time."

Imu squinted at Sōji, and the rest of the elites behind her, Ryōna excluded, seemed rubbed the wrong way slightly by her demeaning tone and attitude. "Do you always speak so candidly to your superiors?" she said critically to Sōji, who rolled her eyes toward Imu.

"Do you always butt in on conversations you aren't a part of?"

Imu frowned and opened her mouth to retort, but Miyabi silently raised a hand and Imu stopped, closing her mouth again and looking ahead.

"Your word doesn't assure me of your worthiness," she started curtly.

"Actions speak louder. My initiation scores reinforce my worth!"

"They don't."

Sōji seemed somewhat surprised at this, giving Miyabi a dumbfounded expression. The other first-years also appeared slightly puzzled.

"But… What was the initiation exercise for, if not to… quantify our strength and potential as students? W-What separates the elites from the regular students, then?" Bashō asked.

"Potential. _Not_ strength," Miyabi corrected, pausing in front of an unoccupied dojo for a moment and turning toward the elite class. "The point of the initiation exercise was to measure your potential. Those who died fighting the hordes of dummies clearly did not meet the threshold. Even if you didn't destroy a single dummy, if you came out of the hour-long exercise alive, you could be useful in some measure. Bashō, Ashiya."

The two first-years who were named stood straight and listened to Miyabi as she addressed them. "The two of you achieved a lower number of kills than the average applicant. There are regular students here that destroyed more dummies than the two of you did."

This caused Bashō's face to fall, and Ashiya's to contort in comical dread and surprise. "S-Such a surprising development! Was my despicable evil not strong enough? Oh, I knew I should have double-prayed and made a goat sacrifice before the initiation…"

Sōji frowned and crossed her arms. "What a waste! Why are these two even-"

Miyabi raised her voice and cut Sōji off. "This is not a gathering of the five students who killed the most dummies. Sōji may have had the most overall kills, but the students with the second-through-fifth highest kill counts are all regular students."

Imu studied the puzzled expressions on the first-years' faces before explaining further. "Out of the innumerable applicants that applied and survived, you five were the only ones to come out of the initiation exercise unscathed. Kill counts don't impress us. Impeccable attention to yourself and your surroundings does."

"You each have your strong points and shortcomings, strengths and weaknesses," Ryōbi added. "Like you, Ashiya. Your offense isn't impressive, but you have a knack for countering your opponents with lethal precision. You let the enemy come to you, and you punish them for it."

Ashiya's dramatically mortified expression suddenly perked up, and she puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips again. "O-Oh! Aha ha ha! But of course! Such a terrible fiend as myself delights in the fruitless struggles of the weak!"

Ryōna threw her arms around Bashō, pressing her ample breasts against her back and causing the green-haired girl to go rigid with discomfort. "And you're a stealthy little garden snake, Bashō~ We thought it'd be hard to hide and sneak around in that exercise arena with all those dummies around, but you made it look easy! Even Sis had trouble keeping up with you!"

"Hush, piggy…" Ryōbi growled, sliding over to pinch Ryōna's cheek and drag her away from Bashō.

Sōji crossed her arms and flipped her hair. "What about me? Talk about me! Tell everyone how _I_ performed, why don't you?" she huffed.

Murasaki played in her hair as she looked down. "Well… Your strong points are obvious, Sōji. And your shortcomings are… e-equally obvious."

Sōji's face went red and her mouth opened to deliver a snappy retort, but Miyabi's firm hand on the top of Sōji's head stopped her before she could speak. "Depending on how this exercise goes, I might or might not answer your question about why I decided to come back to Hebijo. But for right now, get yourselves ready for combat."

Miyabi threw the doors of the dojo open. As expected, it was spacious, quaint, and completely empty.

"We aren't going to be doing anything stupid like capture-the-flag, are we?" Chitose asked as she entered the dojo behind Sōji and the other older elites.

Murasaki twiddled her fingers awkwardly, and Miyabi crossed her arms. "That was _one_ suggestion for your first exercise this year, but I decided against it. There's no need for any elaborate goals or useless bells and whistles to determine how well you work together. All we need is space."

Ibuki grinned. "I think I know what that means! Five-on-five, first years versus seniors, am I right?"

Imu's glasses shimmered as she unzipped her track jacket slightly and pulled a couple of marked kunai from within. Miyabi did the same, and the pair flung them toward the corners of the dojo. The tags on the kunai glowed and hissed, and as the shinobi barrier rose, the setting suddenly changed. They were all standing in an oddly square-shaped clearing in a misty forest not unlike the one that surrounded Hebijo Academy.

"This isn't the most practical exercise, because very rarely will you all ever be in this kind of situation, all together in large group against adversaries that are also all together in a large group. But for now, this scenario will suffice. Your mission is to incapacitate me. Our mission is to incapacitate all five of you. By any means-"

 _BOOM!_

Miyabi had no time to finish, as she and the other seniors had to quickly leap away from their spot when Chitose materialized a large white matchlock rifle from seemingly nowhere and blasted a dark mass of energy from it, which exploded against the ground with roaring force and left purple fire behind in its wake.

"Mission accepted, Miyabi-sensei," Chitose huffed plainly while the others looked at her with surprise.

"A-Ahh…! Chitose, you didn't wait for Miyabi-sensei to say start!" Bashō whined. The sound of a rattling chain drew her attention, and Bashō looked over at Sōji, who now wielded a whip of several curved blades that were connected by red chains.

"Oh, please! Real shinobi don't wait for their opponents to be ready. Just stand back and look pretty if you're not going to fight!"

Bashō sighed and took her paintbrush from behind her ear. In one hand, she clutched the tool, while making a hand sign with the other, and suddenly the paintbrush swelled in size until it was as tall as Bashō was. Ibuki produced a curious pair of M-shaped scissors, and Ashiya laughed as she flourished her trio of chakrams.

"At last, the time comes to truly dance for the honor of evil. The limits of my madness shall be put to test against Hebijo's best! Ahhh ha ha ha! The Dark Queen is ready!"

Miyabi stared at the purple fire, which didn't seem to be dissipating immediately or spreading out to more of the ground. Chitose's control over these flames was part of what helped her leave the entrance exam unharmed. She attacked from range, and the dummies could hardly manage to even approach her, let alone try to land a blow. If Chitose could fill the field with those flames, it could make both teams' jobs difficult.

The rest of the seniors seemed to be thinking the same thing as they turtled protectively around Miyabi, looking out at the first years, then to Miyabi for direction.

"Ryōna! Imu! Go!" Miyabi ordered, and with a nod of acknowledgement, Imu suddenly flashed out of sight, and Ryōna burst forward toward the first-years, skating on thin ice that she was producing underneath her feet to keep up her speed.

Without even glancing at her teammates with any thought of formulating a plan with them, Sōji ran forward and looked prepared to meet Ryōna head-on. Ibuki smirked, planning on taking on their second-year opponent at Sōji's side, but as she ran and brandished her scissors to swing, she was caught off-guard by the sight of Sōji and Ryōna running right past each other without even a glance.

Skidding to an unexpected halt, Ibuki tried to raise a quick and clumsy defense to try to hold Ryōna off, but the blonde second-year was unfazed.

"Bang~! Bang~!" she cooed, whirling on her heel and skating in a half circle past Ibuki. As she did, she fired one of her pistols at Ibuki's ankle and the other at her poorly-guarded side, freezing her ankle to the floor and tearing a hole in her blouse, freezing over the skin of her waist underneath.

Ibuki's eyes widen and she gasped as the sudden bite of cold tore painfully through her body. Falling to one knee, she grit her teeth and struggled to get herself together and recover as Ryōna flew right past her and continued toward Chitose, who squinted as she quickly took aim at the blonde. Chitose's hands and eyes glowed dimly as she gripped her weapon tightly, and the inner barrel began to glow before she launched another round directly at Ryōna.

Just in time, Ryōna launched herself into the air to avoid the explosion of the round and the carpet of purple flame that it created. Chitose grit her teeth and looked up as Ryona fell from the sky toward her, aiming both pistols at Chitose.

"Hiden Ninpō: Beautiful Blue Gunslinger~!"

With her attack called, Ryōna began to whirl in the air as she fired a substantial hailstorm of icy bullets toward Chitose, intent on freezing her right where she was. Realizing the danger, Chitose had prepared to sprint out of the way, but before she could move, a red blur leaped into view between her and the incoming storm.

"Hiden Ninpō: Fiendish Deflection!"

Ashiya's eyes glimmered mischievously as she outstretched her arms and struck a pose before whirling herself around wildly as well, mimicking Ryōna, it seemed. When the storm of Ryōna's attack reached Ashiya, its advance stopped completely. Each of Ryōna's bullets were deflected off of Ashiya's spinning defense, and the entire bulk of the attack was eventually redirected back toward the attacker.

A surprised Ryōna was unable to do anything to stop what was coming and squealed out as she was buffeted by her own blizzard of blue bullets, freezing herself in midair. The block of ice that Ryōna had sealed herself into fell quickly to the ground, shattering and leaving Ryōna flat on the ground, her blouse torn away below her chest.

Ashiya stopped spinning and struck another haughty pose with her hands on her hips. "Ahhh ha ha ha ha! No weapon shall prosper against the maleficent might of my counter skills! Your puny projectiles mean-"

Before Ashiya could finish her hammy gloating, another rapid blur flew by, slamming into Ashiya with a flying kick and sending her squealing across the ground and into the mists, away from the rest of the fight.

"Get up, Ryōna!" Imu ordered, keeping her eyes on Chitose, who was still ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Immediately, Ryōna hopped to her feet, dusting herself off and taking aim with her pistols again. "Well, that was surprising! Nothing I can't handle, though."

Chitose squinted, looking around and analyzing her situation. Bashō had vanished. Ashiya had just been dispatched, and probably wasn't going to be very reliable anyway. Ibuki was fruitlessly smashing at her icy restraints with her weapon, but the ice didn't seem to want to budge. And Sōji was still rushing headlong and alone toward Miyabi. Just ten seconds into their exercise and they were all divided, no one watching anyone's back, and because of it, Chitose was being singled out, double-teamed by a powerful second-year and graduate.

"Looks like I'm being deemed a priority, huh? Figures. You're gonna make me go all out on the first day of training?"

Imu's glasses shimmered as she responded. "You're a Hebijo elite. If you're not going to give it 100% all the time, you won't survive here."

"Very well." Chitose responded with a single nod, and in a flash, her uniform disintegrated, unveiling her hidden scroll between her breasts. "Then allow me to hold nothing back! Shinobi _Tenshin!_ "

Chitose held her scroll aloft, and in a bright flash of light that forced Imu and Ryōna to shield their eyes, she donned her turnover uniform, an interestingly fairy-like ensemble with a white blouse held by pink lace, a yellow skirt with green wing-like ribbons of cloth trailing behind her, and light green ballerina slippers.

"Prepare yourselves," Chitose called out, quickly firing another round at the two seniors. This blast was stronger and required much less charge-up that the blasts she'd fired prior, surprising Imu and Ryōna. They were a moment away from scrambling to get away, but at the same moment that Chitose fired, a bright flash of red shone out from somewhere in the mists, and the same red blur that stood in Chitose's way before came flying right back to swiftly batter away the dark energy shot that Chitose had fired, causing it to soar harmlessly away and explode against the ground far away from where anyone was standing.

Chitose blinked in surprise at the sight of Ashiya returning to the fight, having also donned her turnover attire, a loosely-worn kimono that accentuated her busty physique and a new obnoxiously large gold tiara atop her head.

"Sucker punches are decidedly, despicably evil… Significantly more evil than I'd anticipated could come from such mere mortals as you," Ashiya huffed, her face reddening and her eyes going blank with anger as she points at Imu. "But I _refuse_ to be out-evilled! I swear on the darkest depths of my unholy patronage that I shall punish you for your twisted transgressions!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Chitose protested, her eyes just as blank and angry, though her anger was directed toward her fellow first-year, running up to irritably jab Ashiya in the chest with an accusing finger. "You deflected my shot, you insect! Why would you help our enemies like that?!"

Ashiya put her hands on her hips and let out a boisterous guffaw. "Ahhhhh ha ha ha ha! Help them? Poor, misunderstood mortal. The sinful wrath that I plan to incur upon our enemies will be unlike anything they've witnessed before! They must be pristine if my sacrifice is to be adequate, so your paltry gunshots simply won't do. If you'd have injured them, it would've tarnished the quality of my diabolic dance for evil."

Something in Chitose fell out of place. With crazily frustrated eyes, she grabbed her own hair with one hand and let out an angry growl as steam hissed from her ears. "That's _it!_ I've _had it_ with you!"

Without warning, Chitose took aim directly at Ashiya and fired. The redhead had absolutely no time to react and was sent flying and squealing away again in a large purple explosion, the hem and bottom portion of her kimono burned right off, revealing red geta sandals and exposing much of her legs.

Ashiya was shaken, but quickly recovered, and the next couple of shots Chitose fired at her were swiftly deflected off her chakrams, though the size and power of the projectiles made it more difficult to knock them away than Ryōna's hailstorm of smaller bullets. "Oy! _O-Oy!_ What do you think you're doing?! I'm not who you should be shooting at!"

"You're proof that I really do work better by myself… I'm not going to be able to fight at my best until you're disposed of. So I'll just do everyone a favor and incapacitate you now!" Chitose growled and fired rapidly in Ashiya's direction.

Realizing that she wouldn't be able to keep up her deflecting defense against Chitose forever, Ashiya opted instead to evade her attacks by dodging and running instead. The look in Ashiya's eyes had changed dramatically now that she'd made herself Chitose's enemy. The glimmering haughtiness in her eyes had become panic and regret, and when she spoke, it was no longer with a malicious, hammy cadence.

"Cut it out, cut it out! I'm sorry, alright?! I didn't mean- Waagh!"

Chitose was having none of it, continuing to chase down Ashiya and fire blast after blast of evil fire at the 'Dark Queen', while Imu and Ryōna slowly relaxed and stared at the self-destructive spectacle.

"Should we… attack them? Since they're distracted like that?" Ryōna wondered.

Imu crossed her arms and shook her head. "As far as we're concerned, they've basically subdued themselves. Let's get back to Miyabi and-"

"N-No you don't!"

Ryōna and Imu looked toward Ibuki, who was still frozen on the spot, except with her ninja scroll held aloft.

"Shinobi… _Tenshin!_ "

The ice restricting Ibuki exploded away from her with the energy of her transformation, and in a flash, she became the third first-year to change her outfit. Ibuki now sported a black and red-trimmed ensemble, with her blouse more cropped to expose her waist, and her skirt shorter and slit along the side. Underneath her attire, Ibuki also appeared to be wearing knotted ropes, as well as a turquoise collar around her neck with a long chain hanging from it.

Ibuki raised her M-scissors and furrowed her brows.

"Nothing's going like I thought it would. You all said straight out of the gate that this was a teamwork test, and I can already tell we're not passing…" She shook her head. "But even though no one else wants to work together, the least I can do is try to support the others who want to fly solo. And if that means holding you off so you can't help Miyabi-sensei and the other seniors against Sōji, then so be it! That's my role!"

Imu adjusted her glasses and Ryōna giggled as she twirled her pistols on her fingers. "Goodie~! We were probably going to knock you out on our way back anyway. Glad to know you've still got a fight to put up!"

Ibuki sweated. Ryōna evaded her and stopped her in her tracks effortlessly, and she assumed that Imu, as a graduate and Miyabi's second, was even _more_ powerful. But she'd been caught off-guard, assuming she would be Sōji's backup. With no way of making that mistake again, and with a decent power boost of her own, Ibuki figured that maybe now she stood a bit of a chance.

A tingle of warmth raced up Ibuki's back, and she bit her lip. _'This is_ exciting _me…'_ she thought. _'And I'm sure the seniors would love to see me when I'm excited. They want a taste of how I got past initiation without a scratch. Well alright, then… Let's get wild!'_

Ibuki grinned widely and rushed forward, while Imu and Ryōna did the same, and the three of them leaped toward each other, ready to begin their clash.

 **This is so long overdue. Sorry about going silent for so long, but hopefully over Christmas break, I'll be able to spend more time on this!**


	5. Budding Evil Pt 2

**We've seen one half of the Hebijo first-years act, and it's not looking like a good start. Let's see how much better the other half fares, shall we?**

"Good choice…~" Sōji had murmured quietly toward Ryōna in that moment of closeness when the two of them passed each other at the exercise's beginning.

Ryōna didn't respond, simply glancing over at Sōji briefly before looking forward again to continue her charge toward Chitose, while Sōji left Ibuki in the dust to be pinned down. It looked like she had no intention of taking anyone's help in subduing Miyabi. The other three seniors watching Sōji's swift approach looked unconcerned.

"She really thinks she's the shit, doesn't she?" Ryōbi huffed, taking a knee and aiming down the long barrel of her rifle at Ryōbi. The moment she did, Sōji immediately began to make her advancing movements more erratic and unpredictable, dodging quickly to the left and right, ducking and weaving to throw off Ryōbi's aim.

"Well, then. I'll just show her she's more like the whole toilet! Hiden Ninpō: Ricochet Prelude!"

Unperturbed by Sōji's attempts to mess up her aim, the barrel of Ryōbi's gun glimmered before she fired a single special shot which burst into a pattern of magic circles shortly after being fired and spreading many spiked mines across the floor.

Sōji gasped and immediately slowed down, but the minefield she'd found herself in did not stop her completely. With perfect attention to her surroundings, she was incredibly careful to only step on safe ground and not one on of the mines in her path.

"You really thought that would stop me? Are you really any elite?" Sōji jeered.

"Who said I was done? Weren't you listening? That was just a prelude!" Ryōbi responded, firing a regular shot directly at one of her mines and sparking a chain of explosions that quickly engulfed the area.

Sōji grit her teeth and leaped into the air to avoid the carpet of explosions, but in the process, left her wide open for Ryōbi to lock onto her again.

"Bullseye… Let's see you dodge in midair, brat," she snickered, taking aim at Sōji's gut.

Sōji, as she soared forward, directly in Ryōbi's sights, closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again widely, glaring hard directly at Ryōbi, with a glossy red glow shining quickly across her eyes.

 _Click! Clickclickclick!_

"What the-" Ryōbi gasped, suddenly unable to fire her rifle. Nothing seemed to be jammed, she could tell just from the feeling that everything was right with her weapon, up until the bullet was supposed to fire. "A dud?! There's no way!"

Suddenly distracted by her weapon's uncharacteristic malfunction, Ryōbi's guard dropped completely, and by the time she realized Sōji was still flying toward her, it was too late.

A bone-shaking kick landed squarely on the side of Ryōbi's head, sending her flying away from Miyabi and Murasaki and slamming into the boundary of the shinobi barrier, gritting her teeth as she struggled and failed to get to her feet. Shreds of her uniform began falling away as the pain and confusion spread over her body.

"So _that's_ it," Miyabi muttered casually, turning toward Sōji, while Murasaki lifted her brows, unsure whether to be more concerned about Ryōbi or more focused on Sōji.

"Oh~? Think you've figured me out, huh, Miyabi? Feel free to tell me how amazing you think I am!" Sōji giggled, flipping her hair and whirling her bladed chain whip around dangerously.

Miyabi shook her head. "It's only a hunch. I don't think I've figured out anything." Slowly, she drew her blade, and spoke to Murasaki while keeping her eyes on Sōji. "Stay on your guard. Ryōbi's weapon malfunctioning wasn't dumb luck, I'm sure of _that_ , at least."

"Y-Yeah…" Murasaki furrowed her brows, the shuriken in her hair slowly beginning to spin as she grew tense, reluctantly readying herself to fight.

Sōji took a long look at both of her opponents, smirking. "If it's not clear already, it's Miyabi who I really want to fight. You might as well just step aside unless you want to end up curled up on the floor, too," she threatened Murasaki, whose brows creased even more.

"Um… Sorry, but I really can't do that. I'm supposed to protect Miyabi-sensei. I'd protect Miyabi-sensei with my life… So even though you make me really uncomfortable, you're not going to beat me with just words…"

"Hmph. Have it your way! If you won't move, I'll just run you over!" Sōji rushed forward, rearing back to swing her whip.

"Murasaki!"

"Y-Yes…!"

On Miyabi's command, both she and Murasaki also ran forward to engage Sōji at the same time. A swift slash of Miyabi's blade battered away Sōji's chained whip, and the arrogant first year grit her teeth, forced to duck, dodge, and fall back as Murasaki's animated hair whipped sharp shurikens toward her to try and keep her at bay.

Sōji lashed her whip at her enemies to try to keep them at a distance, but Miyabi fearlessly closed that distance, dodging each slash of the bladed whip, with Murasaki following her lead closely. At a close enough range, the two leaped away from each other to land on either side of Sōji.

"Miyabi-sensei, now!" Murasaki called out as she launched her hair-tangled shuriken forward, forcing Sōji to lean back to avoid them, leaving her in a compromising position.

"Hiden Ninpō…" Miyabi called out, catching Sōji's attention. Black and red flames raced up Miyabi's blade and seven prongs extended from its sides. Sōji could sense the weight of its energy; this wasn't a move she was going to be able to simply block. And a clean hit would be devastating. "…Delightful Inferno!"

Miyabi closed in for a decisive slash with her empowered blade, and for a moment, it looked as though Sōji had bitten off more than she could chew, and was being swiftly punished for it. But as Miyabi closed in, Sōji smirked snidely.

"No," she huffed simply, her eyes shimmering again as she gazed at Miyabi. The fire and prongs on her blade suddenly vanished in a pitiful poof, as did the attack's heavy presence. Miyabi's eyes widened as she felt the power leave her blade, and as she swung, Sōji stuck her arm out to strike Miyabi's wrist and easily parry her blade.

Miyabi was briefly knocked off-balance, unable to quickly recover from the surprise of having her strength simply _vanish_. Sōji took advantage of the stagger and flipped backwards away from the danger of Murasaki's shuriken. She turned toward Miyabi first, swinging her bladed whip and slashing brutally through her sensei's track jacket and shirt beneath, ripping the entire top of her outfit away with a single full-power strike, opening a deep cut along her collarbone, and sending her sliding backwards across the misty ground.

"Miyabi-sensei!" Murasaki gasped, dropping her guard and giving Sōji the opportunity she needed to follow up on her attack.

Whirling on her heel to face Murasaki now, Sōji swung her whip a second time and skillfully jammed two of the whip's blades into the curved arms of Murasaki's hair-tangled shuriken. Continuing her spin, Sōji yanked her whip, and with her blades snagged as they were, managed to pull Murasaki right off of her feet, whirling her around in the air two good times before flinging the whip up and quickly back down, throwing Murasaki into the air and then smashing her into the ground, throwing up a large column of dust and dirt from the impact.

"Hehe~" Sōji flicked her wrist and freed her chained blades from Murasaki's hair, pulling it back to her. "You looked stunned~! What happened to your hunch, _Miyabi-sensei_?" she cooed.

Miyabi held her hand to her wound, slowly cauterizing it shut. It was a very clean cut, so clean that it barely bled. But Miyabi certainly did feel the damage, being reduced only to a bra above the waist.

"I wasn't sure before... But I'm positive what you're doing now. You can disrupt others' ninja arts with a glare. Specifically… you can stop the flow of natural energy, like a gorgon turns flesh to stone. You did it to Ryōbi first, by stopping the gunpowder in her bullets from igniting. And you did it to me just now, destroying the fiery energy I'd built up in my blade. …And you did it quite often during initiation, too. Wooden dummies suddenly going _stiff_ , as if hesitating, when you looked at them. I should've known right then. But now that I've seen you up close, there's no doubt."

Miyabi chuckled and stood up, her wound closed. "Korugan, the Stiffening Eye. That's a remarkable technique you have there. To be able to use it like you do at your age, you do your family proud, Sōji."

Sōji's head seemed to visibly swell at Miyabi's praise, and her eyes sparkled happily. "Hehe! It feels so good to have my greatness acknowledged! And by _Miyabi_ of all people! You had me worried for a second, there. But now I'm _certain_ you know my worth now. I'm pushing you and these 'seniors' to the edge all by myself! Hahaha! Some team exercise, huh? Everyone else is slowing me down! You should just dump them all and stick to training me, Miyabi!"

The white-haired graduate rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Whoever said you'd pushed us to the edge? If you think you've got us reeling, you're grossly overestimating yourself."

Sōji's head deflated and she blinked in confusion at Miyabi. "Eh?"

" _Shinobi… Tenshin!"_

Just then, Sōji was forced to shield her eyes as two bright lights burst outward from nearby, and when they'd dimmed, Miyabi was no longer standing alone. Ryōbi and Murasaki had returned to their feet, and their places protecting Miyabi. Both had changed into their turnover uniforms, Murasaki wearing a large black dress with grey trim, her head lowered, and Ryōbi wearing a white blouse with a black underlying dress, a belt of bullets, a much larger bust, and a red shawl over her shoulders, with white stockings and red shoes to complete the outfit.

"That kick really fucking hurt." Ryōbi grimaced crookedly at Sōji as she pumped her rifle. "I hope you're ready to take all that pain back tenfold! Here I am thinking that this would be a wholesome session of knocking the newbies down to size, showing them where they could be in a year before we buckle down and get to work. But no. You're going to make me have to _actually_ beat your ass. Fine by me!"

Murasaki was silent, but there was a different sort of air about her, a different stance. Sōji squinted and smirked, readying her whip again.

"Ha. You talk such a big game after getting knocked down so easily. If you're so desperate for more proof that I'm better than you, be my guest!"

"Go." At Miyabi's simple order, both Ryōbi and Murasaki advanced forward to engage Sōji again.

Murasaki was in no rush, allowing Ryōbi to take the lead, aiming her rifle at Sōji as she ran.

"Let's pop those oversized jugs of yours, shall we?!"

Arrogantly, Sōji remained right where she was, her brows rising and her eyes shimmering briefly yet again.

 _Click!_

Ryōbi's gun once again failed to fire, and Sōji laughed. "Get real already, would you? There's no shame in me being better than you, but if you get all pissy and mad about it, then-"

Sōji paused. Ryōbi was unconcerned, continuing her charge until she was within striking distance of Sōji, then quickly flipping her rifle to reveal the pointed metal bludgeon attached to the butt of the weapon.

The arrogant first-year gasped and ducked just in time to avoid being smashed in the head with Ryōbi's weapon, and had to continue moving quickly and swinging frantically with her whip to dodge and deflect Ryōbi's unexpected melee attacks.

"What's wrong? You shut up all of a sudden!" Ryōbi taunted, flipping her rifle around again after one wide swing and once again taking aim directly at Sōji's chest.

Sōji was shaken, caught off-guard, and didn't have the time or focus to trigger her Korugan again. She dodged quickly to the side at the last possible moment, causing Ryōbi's successful point-blank shot to graze her torso instead, ripping off a large chunk of her uniform blouse and causing Sōji's face to contort in pain and anger.

"Ooh, hurts doesn't it?" Ryōbi cooed, pulling a bullet from her belt and reloading her rifle.

Sōji had no time to respond. Just as quickly as Ryōbi teased her, Murasaki bore down on her, swinging and slicing with the shuriken in her hair like buzz saws. Not wanting to stay too close to her, Sōji leaped back and once again tried to gain the upper hand with her Korugan, but for some reason, her ability didn't work on Murasaki. Her shuriken kept spinning, her hair remained animated and continued to swing at Sōji on its own accord.

Stunned, Sōji clumsily half-dodged Murasaki's attacks, and was grazed on her other side by one of Murasaki's shuriken, taking another large amount of blouse with it.

"Agh! What's going on?!" Sōji gasped, very shaken at the idea that her prized mystic eye was suddenly ineffective. She took a closer look at Murasaki and furrowed her brow as she noticed that the purple-haired third-year's eyes were closed. "She's not… _looking_ at me…"

The limits of her 'remarkable technique' suddenly weighed heavier on Sōji. She was being outsmarted and outmaneuvered, and it puzzled and confused her to the point of inaction.

"… _sniff… sniff…_ I can smell how rattled you are… " Murasaki muttered, which made Sōji tense up even more, but as she opened her mouth to retort, any snarky words that Sōji might have had in that moment were suddenly drowned out by Murasaki's sudden and surprising loud scream and the violent aura of purple energy that exploded outward along with it.

Sōji raised her hands as if to defend against the volatile outpouring of negative energy that Murasaki produced, but it wasn't a physical force that she could block, but a vile sort of energy that passed right through her, chilling her to her very core and causing her to lose control of herself. She couldn't move, only tremble, and left herself wide open for Miyabi herself to rush in between both Ryōbi and Murasaki to deliver the final blow, a powerful uppercut right to Sōji's chin with the hilt of her sword that launched her into the air and blew away what little remained of her blouse.

Sōji cried out in pain as she was repelled away from Miyabi and the seniors, and for a split second, Miyabi began to relax. But her ear twitched, her brows lifted, and without thinking, she swung her sword arm back behind her. Her blade clashed against something solid, though it seemed like nothing was there.

Both Murasaki and Ryōbi were alarmed at Miyabi's sudden motion, and the golden-eyed graduate slowly turned her head. "Ryōna was right. You're _much_ more stealthy than I think any of us first gave you credit for. Waiting until my most vulnerable moment, the moment right after victory, to strike true."

Slowly, the air began to waver behind Miyabi, and Bashō faded into view like a materializing ghost, a surprised and nervous look on her face. The kanji for the character 'shō' was inked on her forehead, and when she'd become fully visible, the ink suddenly trickled down her face like running water, the kanji disappearing entirely. Bashō's giant paintbrush, which concealed a sword's blade among its hairs, was stuck out in a thrust that sought Miyabi's back, but the graduate's quick deflection kept the first-year's blade at bay.

"A-Ahh… How did you see me? I-I was so careful…" she murmured, leaping back.

Miyabi crossed her arms and turned around fully, with Ryōbi and Murasaki now on guard again as well. "Let's just say you aren't the first one to try to sneak up on me like that. Ryōbi, Murasaki. Go and assure that Sōji is down for the count. Take down the others, too. I think I've seen just about enough, and it's time to wrap up this little exercise. I'll handle this one myself."

"Right away, Miyabi-sensei…"

"Fine, fine. Don't make her loss too painless."

Ryōbi and Murasaki left Miyabi's side, leaving the bashful student alone with her daunting sensei. Miyabi raised her blade and pointed it at Bashō. "You can't hide from me now. I want to see how well you handle yourself in open combat. Come on."

Bashō gulped. Miyabi wasn't even pretending that she could be a challenge, making her feel that much smaller compared to her. It took all she had not to forfeit and declare herself subdued right there. If it was anyone else, she might have just tried to escape. What any other enemy would've thought of her cowardice didn't matter to her. But Miyabi was her sensei. Her opinion of her mattered more than almost anyone else's. Her career as a shinobi _depended_ on Miyabi's opinion. So Bashō stood her ground and reluctantly raised her paintbrush blade as well.

"A-Ahh… A-As you wish… M-Miyabi-sensei."

…

Meanwhile… Ryōna and Imu were locked in combat with Ibuki, who was proving far more resilient against them than perhaps they were expecting. Ibuki wasn't putting any significant pressure on the two of them, but at every turn, she evaded their attempts to cripple and subdue her. Ibuki was wise to Ryōna's freezing tactics and outsped her attempts to lock her on the spot again. And Imu was overwhelmingly fast, too fast to block at times, but even though she managed to land a few charged blows with her bō staff, Ibuki was sturdy enough to endure them and repel Imu, starting the song and dance all over again.

"Your fighting style is a lot staler than what you showed off during initiation. You're sturdy, I'll give you that, but if you'd fought like this back then, you'd never have made it into the elite class," Imu criticized.

Ibuki rubbed her nose. "Hehe… Cut me some slack, why don't you? I'm not fighting a bunch of wooden dolls this time around. You two are tough! Making me a little apprehensive, is all. And I'm still standing, so I can't be doing that badly!"

Imu squinted, and Ibuki knew she wasn't buying it. She looked down at her hands for a moment. That tingle that ran up her back, the rush of excitement she felt, it was still there. Ibuki felt like she was on the edge of what she was hoping would happen, but it wasn't enough, and she sighed, holding her arm up to the sharp edge of her scissors. _'I wish I didn't have to do this, but it doesn't look like there's much choice.'_

Ibuki bit her lip and prepared to make the cut, but went rigid when she heard a loud impact behind her, like someone hitting the ground. She didn't dare turn away from Imu and Ryōna, who were most certainly waiting for an opportunity to strike, but she looked off to the side just enough to recognize Sōji's blonde hair sprawled out along the ground, then turned her head more to see that she was topless, save for a black bra.

"Have fun over there?" Ibuki snarked, looking back to her own enemies as Sōji slowly and shakily rose to her feet.

"Shut… your mouth…" Sōji growled quietly, reaching into a skirt pocket and pulling out a small folded mirror. Clicking it open, she stared at her own reflection, at the nasty bruise on her chin and the blood that trickled from her lip.

When Sōji noticed it, Ibuki smelled it, and her eyes shrunk slightly. "You're bleeding."

"I said shut up! What's it to you, anyway?" Sōji hissed, her expression twisting angrily as Ryōbi and Murasaki closed in, having followed her and stopped a short distance away.

Sōji's anger grew so great that it seemed to take form, a faint and wispy red aura that surrounded her like a flame, slowly melting the rest of her clothing. Her ninja scroll fell from her bust, and without a word, she squeezed it tightly, changing into her turnover uniform in a bright red column of light: a white and teal leotard with a stylish snake-shaped slit cut from her upper left breast down to her hip, with red string holding the outfit together. Brown boots and black leg sleeves completed her attire.

Sōji and Ibuki were forced to stand back to back. Sans Miyabi, the two of them were fighting every other one of their opponents with no backup except each other. Ibuki shivered and grinned before she answered Sōji's question.

"What's it to me? Nothing, really… Just saves me the trouble of having to do it myself."

Sōji furrowed her brows and looked over her shoulder at Ibuki. Her hair was starting to stand on end slightly, her breathing accelerating. The scent of blood… _This_ was the edge she was looking to tip herself over. Ibuki hunched slightly, a wild grin on her face.

"I'm not a freak or anything, but… the smell of blood just gets me going for some reason. Mine, someone else's… Mm~ Oy, Imu! You wanted to see me fight more like I did during initiation, right? Careful what you wish for…"

Sōji lashed her whip once as she stared at Ryōbi and Murasaki. "Do you have any idea how long it takes me to make myself this gorgeous every day? And thanks to you, thinking you're so clever, so much better than me, it's all messed up. I'll make sure you regret it, all of you!"

"Tits-for-brains! You'd better not be slowing Imu down over there!" Ryōbi growled over toward her sister, who put on a goofy grin and waved back in response.

"Murasaki. Give it your all, you hear me?" Imu called over to her own sibling. The purple-haired recluse pursed her lips and nodded simply.

Everyone moved all at once, rushing forward to meet their enemies head-on, fully intent on going all-out this time.

 **Sorry this sort of ended in the same sort of place the last chapter ended. Wasn't sure how else to get to this point without it feeling same-y.**

 **The next chapter will conclude the Hebijo introductory exercise. Bashō vs. Miyabi, Sōji and Ibuki vs. everyone else, and Chitose and Ashiya vs… each other. Should be a fun chapter!**

 **Let me know what you think with a review. I'm so glad this didn't take me months to get out. Hopefully this'll set a precedent for the rest of winter break. Merry Christmas, everyone!**


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